Beyond the Barrier: Zombie Town One-shots
by CallMeLy
Summary: Life in Zombie Town is rough, but this is their normal. Not exactly ideal, but... normal. A one-shot collection about the zombies of Seabrook, genres will range from angst to humour to friendship to anything else. One-shots can be set during, pre- or post- movie. Expect a lot of Bonzo because I love him.
1. A Secret

**Disclaimer** \- I don't own ZOMBIES or any of the characters involved. Copyright to Walt Disney Studios

It's time for a new one-shot collection! I saw ZOMBIES for the first time just over a month ago (I think) and I'm completely in love with it. This one is gonna revolve entirely around the zombies themselves and be set mostly in Zombie Town. Some of them will take place during the movie, some might be pre- or post-movie. I have plans for another ZOMBIES one-shot collection focused on my OTP, Bronzo (yes, I know, my OTP isn't Zeddison, don't get me wrong though, I do love them too! I'm just a big fan of Bonzo and Bree~), and something more ambitious which isn't entirely certain yet so we'll see. In the mean time, here's some of our favourite zombie siblings~

* * *

A Secret

First day of school: total disaster.

Class in a dingy basement? Check.

Set off a Z-alert? Check.

Get punched in the face by a cute cheerleader? Check.

Rejected from the football team? Aaaand check.

Well, the 'cute cheerleader' part did have an upside to it…

 _Not the point._

The point was, Zed's first day at Seabrook High – a _humans'_ high school – hadn't exactly lived up to his expectations. His dad had been right, humans did _not_ like zombies. Well, most of them didn't. At least Zed had been right about some humans. Or, well, one in particular. Addison hadn't liked zombies until she met him. Addison was willing to change her mind. Addison-

 _OK, stop thinking about Addison._

He paused outside the front door of his house. He heard Eliza's door closing from the other side of the street behind him. The little pep-talk she'd given him earlier after try-outs hadn't helped. The whole walk home had consisted of Zed and Eliza continuing to argue, and Bonzo trying, and failing, to diffuse the situation. Bonzo had left with a huff and roll of his eyes once they reached their street while Eliza fixed Zed with her classic 'you-know-I'm-right'-look before telling him not to let it get to him and saying goodbye. He knew this was just her way of showing she cared, but he couldn't help wanting to prove her wrong.

Taking a deep breath and shaking off the bad vibes, Zed opened the door.

"I'm home!"

"Zed…!"

He was immediately met with a seven-year-old to the leg, causing him to stumble slightly. He couldn't help grinning as he scooped a giggling Zoey up into his arms but before either of them could say anything, their dad entered the hallway.

"Hey, Zed," he smiled, but Zed knew what was coming, "How was your first day, huh?"

"Pretty good," he shrugged, giving a slight nod, and glanced from his dad, to his sister, and back again, "A whole lot different to zombie school, that's for sure."

"Yeah? And, uh… what about football try-outs?"

 _And there it is._

Zed tried to brush it off while his dad raised an eyebrow. He felt Zoey's grip on his shoulder tighten as she looked at him, so hopeful. He let out a sigh, one that he hoped sounded nonchalant enough to get him out of another talk like the one from that morning, but he wasn't so sure it worked.

"Didn't quite make the team. It's no big deal, I guess they just didn't have room for everyone, y'know?" he leaned in a little closer to Zoey's ear and whispered, "Or maybe they were too intimidated by my skills."

Zoey couldn't stop herself from giggling at her brother's face - the cocky smirk and the quirked eyebrow. Zed's jaw dropped in mock offense.

"Are you laughing at me?"

She shook her head but made no attempt whatsoever to hide her giggles.

"Oh, what, you don't believe me? You don't think I got mad skills, huh?"

The way he was wiggling his eyebrows only made her laugh louder. Zed kept his attention on Zoey until his dad gave up on getting him to talk and headed for the kitchen. Once he was out of sight, Zed creeped a little closer to the door to make sure he really was in the clear. Zoey's laughter trickled to a stop and she cocked her head curiously.

"What are you doing?" she whispered. She could tell he was hiding.

Zed's eyes shifted back and forth, as if there could be someone else in the house listening.

"Checking the coast is clear…"

He carried her to the staircase and put her down on the first step. He motioned for her to go up, and he followed, keeping low and glancing back towards the kitchen every few seconds. Zoey bit ler tongue to keep from laughing again and copied his secret agent-act, pressing a finger to her lips when they heard a noise. They both froze – it was just their dad pulling out a chair, but they were having too much fun. A moment passed, and they hurried up the last steps and into Zoey's bedroom. Zed went to close the door and peeked around it briefly, ducking behind it again like he'd seen someone. He shut the door as quietly as possible and the whole charade was off. Zed rubbed his hands together as he knelt in front of Zoey, sat on her bed.

"So…" he grinned, and his voice dropped to a whisper, "I got a secret for you."

Zoey's eyebrows shot up and she leaned forward.

"A secret?" she whispered back.

"Yup. You ready?" an eager nod in return, "OK. Today, I met… a _girl_."

"Like, a girl you _like_?"

"Yeah," he looked behind him at the door, then shuffled a little closer to Zoey, "And this is the really secret part of the secret… She's a _human_."

"No way…!" Zoey gasped.

"And, you're gonna love this, she's… a _cheerleader_."

Zoey let out a faint, but shrill, squeak of delight and Zed held back a wince. Of course, he was completely prepared for the barrage of questions that spilled out after that, and he was all too happy to tell his sister all about how he met Addison. Especially since she wouldn't respond to it the same way Eliza had.

"Wait, she _punched_ you?"

\- BEYOND THE BARRIER -

"Zoey, dinner!"

Zed had just entered the kitchen when his dad called Zoey inside. She came running in and, while their dad's back was turned, she tugged on Zed's sleeve. He leaned down.

"There were humans outside," she looked worried, "I think they were cheerleaders."

Cheerleaders. Zed felt his heart sink. There was only ever one reason human teenagers would be in Zombie Town, and the thought of Addison being part of that brought his mood plummeting down, and it wasn't all that good to begin with. But wait – Addison might not have made the squad, right? Maybe she wasn't there. Even if she _had_ been going to cheer camp forever… and even if the captain _was_ her cousin… and even if she _was_ a super bright and positive person who would totally make the squad. He groaned inwardly but before he could say anything to Zoey, the sound of screaming and screeching tires came from outside. Zoey's eyes went wide, and Zed stood upright, holding out a hand when his dad went to leave the room.

"I'll go."

He didn't wait for an answer.

Zed hopped off the porch and looked around. He noticed Eliza's mom across the street, who silently turned to him, shaking her head, then fixed her gaze on something behind him. With that, she went inside. His dad appeared at the door just as Zed turned to see what she had been looking at.

"Everything OK out here?"

Zed almost didn't hear him; behind the fence were two girls in Mighty Shrimp cheer uniforms, one of them being all too familiar. Addison. Her eyes met his and the guilt he saw there told him everything he needed to know.

"Zed?"

He turned away, to his dad. He hesitated. Why was he hesitating?

"Anybody there?"

He couldn't look back at her.

"Uh, no," he couldn't, "Nobody."

He couldn't.

"Come on back inside, then."

Before he followed his dad, he risked one more glance at Addison. Again, he was met with nothing but guilt. Her eyes dropped to the ground. What was he supposed to say to that? Without a word, without another look, he left Addison and her friend crouched behind the fence. Back inside, Zoey was sitting at the kitchen table waiting to eat. Zed tried to avoid her but she tugged at his sleeve as he passed her.

"Was that her…?" she whispered.

Zed forced a small smile and briefly shook his head, sitting down. She'd been so excited when he told her about Addison before.

"No."

Zoey knew him better than that, though. And she knew better than to pry.


	2. I Take It Back

**Disclaimer** \- I don't own ZOMBIES or any of the characters involved. Copyright to Walt Disney Studios

It took me way less time to write this one than it did the first one. Mostly because I love Bonzo with everything I've got and this is the first time I've written a fic mentioning one of my autistic headcanons so I was excited. There's some foreshadowing of another one-shot I've got planned about Bonzo's autism here

TWO QUICK NOTES: 1. I'm going to start posting the Bronzo one-shot collection ASAP and will be aiming to update _either one_ of the collections **_every other day_** and 2. I'll also be posting a stand-alone one-shot soon about my mutants/Z-bands theory which I'd recommend reading because some of these one-shots will be referring to that theory in some way

Anyway, I was rewatching ZOMBIES a while ago (ok, I rewatch it every couple days pretty much but this was a particular rewatch from a few weeks ago) and I realised we never find out what happened with Bonzo after he runs away at the pep rally. I was worried about him, so I sent Eliza to comfort him~

* * *

I Take It Back

" _Bonzo…!_ "

Zed's voice didn't even register in his brain. All he could think of was that he needed to get _out_. Away from the fire. Away from the bright sparks that stung his eyes and the crackling sound that made his skin crawl. That terrified and overwhelmed and hurt him without even touching him. His vision was starting to blur and he wasn't entirely sure which way he was going, just that he was going somewhere, anywhere, that wasn't there. He barrelled through the cheer squad's pyramid, completely unaware of what damage he might have caused in doing so. He saw an opening - a door - and blindly ran for it.

It was only his second day at Seabrook High and the school was still unfamiliar to him, especially considering the zombie students were confined to the basement for the most part. The hallway was empty, what with the pep rally attracting all the attention it did, and Bonzo was left to deal with his meltdown alone. His breathing was ragged and shallow and he tried to force it to calm but to no avail. He felt tears in his eyes and swallowed. Things were already this bad, he couldn't start crying now, too. He turned a corner, leaned against the wall and squeezed his eyes shut. He could still see the jumping sparks, the fire. He dug the heels of his palms into his closed eyes and his breathe shook.

It wasn't fair. He was enjoying it until it all went wrong.

Where was Zed? Or Eliza? Normally, one of them would have stopped him or followed him. Zed had called out to him, hadn't he? So, where was he? Where were his friends?

A hand suddenly grabbed his arm and his head jerked up, but it wasn't who he had hoped it would be. A patrol officer, the one who he had offered a hug to the day before, who had come into the basement when the alarm sounded, was standing there now with a firm grip on his bicep. His first instinct was to pry her hand off but she wouldn't let go.

"Where do you think you're goin', zombie?"

Someone grabbing him only made it worse. He spluttered, a soft hiss the only sound he could make, just like back in the gym. Her hold on him tightened and she started to move.

"Alright, let's go."

She was going back the way he had come.

Back towards the gym.

"F-fire…" he muttered, getting louder as they walked further down the hallway, "Fire…!"

"No excuses, zombie."

 _Come on, say something…!_

"A-agra…"

 _English, Bonzo! Just a few words!_

" _You're perfectly capable of speaking English, Bonzo."_

He shook his head at the memory. Whatever his parents said, he knew they were wrong because, right now, he wasn't capable of speaking much of anything, English or Zombie. The tears were about to spill over. A door opened somewhere ahead of them and Bonzo recognised the voice of Eliza.

"Bonzo? Hey, what are you doing? Let him go!"

Eliza was beside him in an instant, glaring up at the patrol officer.

"Oh, you, again, huh?" the officer said, yanking Bonzo back when he tried to take a step towards Eliza, "Listen, unless you wanna go with him, you better march on back to that gym where they can keep an eye on you, are we clear?"

"Go _where_? He didn't do anything wrong, you're scaring him!"

"You saw what happened in there, he took out half the squad."

Bonzo ducked his head. He hadn't realised he'd caused any trouble.

"You can't blame him for that, he was freaked out by those weird fire-spitting things they were using. He barely knew what was going on! They did that on purpo-"

"Quiet! We can't have a dangerous zombie like this running wild around human students, he's going back to Zombie Town. You wanna join him, or are you gonna cooperate?"

It took everything Eliza had not to lash out. Bonzo gave her a pleading look and she gritted her teeth. It was more important she help him and try and talk some sense into the woman than anything else.

"He's not dangerous, he's autistic," she spat, "He had a meltdown because those cheerleaders thought they were being funny or whatever. You want to blame someone for this? Blame Bucky!"

"A likely story. Whoever heard of a zombie with autism?"

Bonzo flinched. Noticeably. He mumbled something Eliza couldn't quite make out but she knew what was wrong and she knew she had to wrap this up as soon as possible, for Bonzo's sake. The officer pulled on his arm and continued.

"You got one last chance, back to the gym or your outta here."

Bonzo and Eliza exchanged a look. He made one more attempt to shake himself out of the officer's grip but she held on. Eliza slowly exhaled and lowered her voice.

"Can I just take him back there myself? All he did was run off, it was one little mistake…" she made herself relax, she wasn't going to risk them both being labelled as threats, "We're going back home soon anyway, you don't need to escort him. And you holding him like that's is _not_ helping…"

The officer dropped one hand, the other still holding his wrists together. Eliza placed a hand lightly on Bonzo's shoulder. He felt more comfortable with a friend's hand on him than the officer's.

"Alright, in that case, the two of you return directly to Zombie Town for the remainder of the day. And I'll be watching both of you from now on, got it?"

"Got it."

Eliza nodded once and finally managed to pull Bonzo out of the officer's hold.

The officer lectured them for another minute or so then concluded that they weren't worth wasting so much time on and walked away with a final warning. Once she was out of earshot, Eliza groaned, her hands out in front of her, strangling the air where the officer's neck had been a few moments ago.

"Ugghh…! Stupid officers, stupid cheerleaders, stupid humans… Every last one of 'em. Man, I'd like to…"

She trailed off, not paying attention to Bonzo moving to the wall. Her hands balled into fists.

"I can't believe they'd do something like that!" she threw her arms up in exasperation, pacing now, "Actually, no, I can. I can totally believe they would. I can 100% believe that cheerleaders would do that to us."

Eliza stopped in her tracks when she finally looked back at Bonzo. Looked _down_ at him. He had slid down the wall and was now sat on the floor, his knees pulled to his chest and his arms covering his head, nails almost digging into the back of his neck. He took deep breaths, slowly but surely grounding himself back into reality. But he was still shaking slightly. Eliza went quiet, hesitating for only a second. She quickly glanced up and down the hallway. The patrol officer was thankfully long gone and no-one else was around – more importantly, no humans were around. She sighed and sat down beside Bonzo, giving him an inch of space while he calmed down.

"You OK?" she asked, her voice so different to the irritable ranting from before. A voice only a select few zombies ever got to hear, one laced with care and sympathy, nothing but love for her friend.

Bonzo slowly dropped his arms to his sides and nodded, his eyes on the floor in front of him. He rubbed the tears from his cheeks.

"Za."

Seeing he was ready to be touched, Eliza shuffled closer and wrapped an arm around his shoulder, something she could only ever really do when they were sitting like this. And like every other time they had found themselves in this position, Bonzo gently rested his head on her shoulder. His fingers came up to twirl a lock of her hair that fell near his eye and she huffed.

"Do you have to?" she raised an eyebrow. He froze, uncertain, but Eliza smiled and rolled her eyes, "I'm kidding. Go ahead."

If it helped him relax, she'd put up with it.

"Um…" she started and he let go of her hair, lifting his head to look at her curiously, "I'm sorry for what I said yesterday. About 'coming too far' to be scared of fire still. I take it back. If you're scared, you're scared."

They were both silent for a few seconds, then Bonzo smiled and wrapped his arms around her. She grunted. He always hugged a little too tight, but she was used to it.

"Gazaru, Elizaka."

"You're welcome," she stood up and offered Bonzo a hand, "C'mon. Let's go home."


	3. Closed Doors

**Disclaimer** \- I don't own ZOMBIES or any of the characters involved. Copyright to Walt Disney Studios

I **highly recommend** reading A Zombie History Lesson (my mutants theory fic) if you haven't already to get a bit of context for this one, there's mentions of mutations and what else the Z-bands do here, but you might be able to get the gist of it if you just read this one. Still, History Lesson is gonna be useful to read cuz there'll be more mentions of the theory!

I asked on Tumblr which one out of three one-shots I had planned I should write next and a grand total of 2 people voted, both for "Bonzo's ableist parents"! So, essentially a sequel to the last one. Now you get to learn why exactly Bonzo flinched when the patrol officer said zombies can't be autistic! Yay! Angst! I'd noticed we don't see Bonzo's parents in the movie when he, Zed and Eliza come back to Zombie Town after being arrested and I wanted to know what they were like. I was gonna make them super doting but then my friend made one little suggestion and I ran with it and they turned out Bad. I hate them but it's my own damn fault they're like this

Remember, I'm updating _either_ this or Another Girl, Another Zombie every couple of days

* * *

Closed Doors

Everything had gone wrong, and Bonzo hadn't even known how it happened.

There was too much going on. Something was wrong with Zed, _really_ wrong. Eliza had said the Z-band software was corrupted. Then the Z-alert was blaring and everyone was panicking. All Bonzo could think to do was follow Eliza down the bleachers but in an instant his vision had gone fuzzy and he couldn't think. He was only vaguely aware of the people running from them both, and the growling he heard was, strangely, coming from his own throat. The next thing he knew, he was crumpled on the ground, a jolt of electricity ten times stronger than the Z-bands still coursing through him. A few feet away, he saw Eliza on her knees, tears threatening to spill from her eyes, and they were both surround by patrol officers.

But he still couldn't think.

He barely responded as he was handcuffed, yanked to his feet and marched across the football field. All he could do right now was follow instructions. His senses had been completely overwhelmed, what with all the frenzy of the crowd and the sirens, and then his Z-band going offline. He was in a total shutdown. He heard Addison crying.

"These are my friends…!"

And Eliza, so close to crying.

"We don't _have_ human friends."

He tried to say something but he just couldn't find his voice. He tried to look up but everything, _everything_ , was just too much, and his eyes dropped back to the ground. His face was blank. His mind was blank.

It was all too much.

\- BEYOND THE BARRIER -

He got enough of an explanation from Zed and Eliza while they were transported to the containment facility, then when they were split up into separate cells, Bonzo could still do nothing but sit, curling himself up in the corner, steadying his breathing and trying to make sense of it all. They'd been messing with Zed's Z-band. There wasn't much point in blaming him for it now, though. The damage was done. Zed felt guilty enough for it. Now, all Bonzo could think of was facing his parents. The patrol would call them. They'd know he'd been arrested. He couldn't avoid talking to them.

Even if they understood that it hadn't been his fault, _talking_ to them… in _this_ state… It wasn't going to be easy. His expression remained still and all his voice could do was echo the little noises of footsteps, doors opening and closing, the taps and creaks and clangs, back into the silence in between. He closed his eyes. Even the emptiness of the cell was too much.

\- BEYOND THE BARRIER -

When the three of them finally arrived back home in Zombie Town, Bonzo was still silent, if a little more expressive. He could manage to follow Zed and Eliza's conversation, at least, but he couldn't seem to make any input himself. They parted ways and he couldn't help how his heart dropped when Eliza's mom rushed out to greet her, enveloping her in a hug and telling her how worried she and her father had been, or when Zed's dad grabbed him, ranting about how stupid a mistake he had made, but with so much care and love.

Bonzo stood there on the street in front of his house for a moment or two. Neither his mom nor his dad came to the door. He hadn't expected them to, honestly.

Wanting to hold off on going inside for as long as possible, he let his eyes wander across the decorations – his art. Old, worn out red and blue tyres and broken lamps created a border around the gravel, surrounding the white stones he had arranged in a 'Z' perfectly positioned in the centre. The porch and steps were framed with an array of horns, trumpets and saxophones that he had collected but had turned out far too old, rusted and unplayable for him to salvage and put to good use again. Two things sat on either side of the path to the porch: a medium-sized wooden block, so far blank but ready to be made into something special, and the project he had been working on at the start of the school year, a tall box, taller even than Bonzo himself, covered on all sides with carefully painted green bodies and Zombie-tongue phrases, split into thirds so they could be twisted around into different combinations. The diversity of the zombie people, still able to connect with one another. Different, but the same. If only his parents could appreciate that.

If only they could appreciate any of his artwork…

This is what he did when he felt alone, when he was avoiding his parents, but the others were too busy for him to spend that time at their houses. Or… when he just _wanted_ to be alone. With his creations. He had a lot of reasons to make art, but these were his escape, his way of hiding the tension and arguments and lack of understanding that went down in that house, behind closed doors.

The street was quiet and Bonzo started to feel he had stood there for long enough. He had to get this over with. They would be waiting in there, knowing full well where their son had just been and expecting some kind of explanation.

He had to get this over with.

He climbed the porch steps and opened the front door. He immediately heard his dad's voice coming from the kitchen.

"… only going to try making the same old excuses…"

He trailed off as he heard Bonzo enter. Walking into the kitchen, he found his dad sitting at the table and his mom standing with her back against the counter, her arms folded across her chest. They both looked up at him, though neither of them made any attempt to actually welcome him home. No smiles, no hugs, no asking if he was alright. Just… looks. When his mom's eyes met his, he dropped his gaze to the floor.

Too much.

"Finally, you're back…! What happened? They said your band shut off and you were attacking people."

Not a hint of concern for his wellbeing, just wanting the facts. He shook his head. Words still weren't coming too easily.

"Would you actually talk to us, for once?"

He could barely mumble a little Zombie, "Deh zer-garzand," he indicated his Z-band, still not looking up, "Grozro… zagraba-"

" _English_ , please, Bonzo. We all know you're perfectly capable of speaking English," his mom interrupted, also pointing to the band on his wrist, "You have a working Z-band, you can speak English."

He wasn't going to be able to give a clear enough explanation in English right now.

"… Don't know…" he said, looking off to one side now and anxiously rubbing his wrist under the Z-band. His voice and expression remained flat, "Zedka…"

"Look at your mother when she's talking to you." his dad said.

He tried to.

"This was Zed's doing, then, was it? I should've known," she briefly glanced at her husband, "Zevon doesn't know what he's doing raising that boy without a mother."

Feeling drained already, Bonzo leaned on the doorframe and looked down again, his fingers coming to stim with the zipper of his fanny pack.

"Don't ignore me, I'm still talking."

He flinched and squeezed his eyes shut.

"Not ignoring, just hurts…" he said.

"Stop making excuses. We've been over this, Bonzo, looking me in the eye does _not_ hurt you."

 _How would you know?_ he wished he could say. Instead, he only shook his head again. His dad decided to chip in, running a tired hand down his face.

"A zombie _cannot_ have autism. The Z-band fixes all of that."

 _That's not how it works._ He couldn't find the words to say it, though, in Zombie or in English. _That's not what it is._

It was his brain itself, not the mutated genes. All zombies had those. They were capable of changing those. Most zombies didn't have this. He couldn't change the wiring of his brain and he didn't _want_ to. He didn't _need_ to.

He couldn't say anything else. It was too much.

Bonzo turned on his heel with a huff and headed upstairs. This time, when his parents shouted after him, he definitely _was_ ignoring them. He had tried, multiple times, to explain this to them. Zed and Eliza had even tried to explain it to them for him. This was his normal, his natural. Z-bands fixed the zombies' problems, the mutations (the best they could). They couldn't "fix" what was just normal to begin with. Sure, other zombies could speak English wearing their bands, but he just struggled to _speak_ and Zombie was the easier option, that wasn't anything to do with the mutation. Other zombies could emote and empathise wearing their bands, but he just didn't understand _how_ to sometimes, and that wasn't anything to do with the mutation, either. In his bedroom, stacked high with canvases, easels, music stands, sketchbooks, paints, fabric, every drawing utensil you could imagine and a ridiculous number of instrument cases, among plenty of other things, Bonzo sifted through his organised chaos to find his art case – the round leather backpack he took almost everywhere. He'd opted out of taking it to the homecoming game, after much deliberation, which had ended up being a good idea. He wouldn't have wanted the zombie patrol to get their hands on it. He slung the strap over one shoulder and hurried back down the stairs.

"What are you doing now?" his dad asked from the kitchen door. Bonzo didn't bother looking back at him.

"Work."

He slammed the front door closed behind him.

He hopped off the porch and over to the wooden block, gently putting the case down beside it and kneeling on the ground. He opened the case, first taking out a couple of sheets of newspaper, which he placed under the block, then a spray can of white paint and his mask. He started on a base coat. He could relax now.

Behind him, from the opposite side of the street, footsteps approached. They didn't get too close to block his light or invade his space. Just stood for a few seconds.

"Hey, Bonz," came Zed's voice over his shoulder. Bonzo hummed in response but didn't look up. He knew Zed wouldn't mind, and he didn't, "How'd it go, then?"

"Zon grodge." The mask muffled his voice but Zed could make out the words well enough.

"How 'not good', exactly?"

"Gra'zon zet egrall," _couldn't even explain_ , "Maka durg garzalk zu garzedd bragan." _Mom turned it into an autism talk._

" _Again?_ "

He stopped and pulled the mask off, leaning back on his hands and looking up at Zed, "Za."

"Man…" Zed sat down on the other side of the block from Bonzo, "Apparently, Eliza's shut herself in her room and won't come out. Is anything gonna go right?" he smiled when he said it, trying to lighten the mood, and Bonzo smiled back sadly, shrugging, "… Sorry I dragged you into this mess."

Bonzo slowly shook his head.

"Gra'zon ru grep." _You couldn't help it._

There was a pause, then Bonzo tugged on the newspaper to move the block aside, leaned over and hugged Zed close. He really needed a hug. Zed hissed softly as Bonzo squeezed his left arm, the one damaged by the Z-band, and he pulled away.

"Ru grodge…?"

"I'm fine, buddy."

Bonzo shifted his position and hugged him again, being careful of his arm this time.

He _really_ needed a hug.


	4. Do I Look Green?

**Disclaimer** \- I don't own ZOMBIES or any of the characters involved. Copyright to Walt Disney Studios

Hey, guess what? This one is _not_ about Bonzo! Shocking, I know.

Quick update - I'm probably gonna start updating the collections daily, Beyond the Barrier on even numbered days and Another Girl, Another Zombie on odd. I might take a break here and there if I need to, but hopefully I can stick to it. I've really got back into my writing with these stories~

Anyway, you know how Milo Manheim actually dyed his hair green to play Zed? In the scene when Zed's turned himself human, you can see a little bit of the black hair dye smudged on his forehead and it's a little patchy on the back - you can see some faint flecks of green if you look closely. So, deciding to help cover up this kinda sloppy dye job, I came up with this headcanon. This one refers to the mutants theory again, so if you haven't read it yet and you want some context, go read A Zombie History Lesson~!

Also, if you know the musical Zombie Prom, I slipped in a little reference~

* * *

Do I Look Green?

Zed had done a lot of dumb things in the past. Breaking a neighbour's window with a football when he was nine. Letting Zoey run wild at the old power plant three years ago. Betting Eliza $5 he could eat every can of cauli-brains they had in half an hour just that past summer. But nothing could compare to what he was about to do now.

Swiping right.

Eliza said it would corrupt the software but honestly, Zed wasn't entirely sure what that meant. He took a deep breath, his right hand hovering his Z-band.

"No risk, no reward."

He flicked his finger across the screen and watched it turn orange. An "unstable" warning flashed on the display. For a split second, it seemed like nothing else was happening, but then a sudden, powerful shock of electricity surged through him and a scream tore itself from his throat. He doubled over, clutching his left wrist.

"Zed?" came the concerned voice of his father from downstairs, "Was that you? You alright up there?"

"Y-yeah…" Zed forced himself to say, trying to catch his breath, "Just, uh… just hurt my arm…" It wasn't a lie, "I'm fine."

"OK…" His footsteps retreated down the hall.

He was struggling to breath. He tried to straighten up but his band shocked him again. He bit his tongue to keep from screaming this time. An unfamiliar feeling came to his chest and he gripped it in confusion.

His heart.

His heart was beating.

A zombie's heartbeat was dull, barely there at all, but Zed's was getting faster and faster. His legs buckled, muscles tightening in some places, relaxing in others, and completely throwing him off balance. He looked down as his Z-band again and gasped; his grey skin was starting to brighten to a humanly-healthy pink, blood rushing through his veins and bringing his body to life. The sensation was… unreal. He staggered towards the mirror and tripped, landing hard on the floor. He hissed in pain, desperate not to let his dad or sister hear him again. It shouldn't have hurt that much. Not with a zombie's strength.

Energy coursed through his entire being, but Zed's body wasn't prepared for it. It wasn't used to it. This wasn't natural for him – for a human, maybe, but he was all too aware of his climbing heartrate, his full veins, his fragile muscles.

For the first time in his life, he was _alive_. Totally and completely alive.

Another shock hit him. It had taken a little longer to come than the last one. Zed sat on his bedroom floor, waiting for his breathing to finally even out. Once he could stand, still uneasy on his newly-sensitive legs, Zed pushed himself up and slowly walked over to the mirror. His jaw dropped when he saw himself. There was colour in his cheeks, real, actual colour. He pressed his hands to his face, and, curiously, lightly smacked himself. He flinched then watched as his skin reddened for a moment and faded back to a pinkish-peach. He couldn't stop himself smiling. It worked.

Sort of.

There was one hitch to this plan – his hair. Stronger electromagnetic waves in his system weren't going to magically change his green hair into something more human-looking. Even if the shocks _could_ do anything to those genes, it would probably mean new hair would start growing in a different colour. The hair already there was green, that's how it had grown and that's how it would stay. Zed groaned. What was he supposed to do now? Zombie hair didn't dye, and there wasn't anywhere he could even go to get dye anyway, not with human skin and zombie hair. Going out into Zombie Town like this would be bad and going into Seabrook would be even worse. And he couldn't let his dad or Zoey see him like this.

 _And_ he only had a limited amount of time to get ready before he had to go pick up Addy. And meet her parents.

He had _not_ thought this through.

He'd have to find something else to colour his hair with. Actual hair dye may not stick, but there might be something that he could slather on that would be convincing enough and he could still shower off once he got to the locker room at the homecoming game. He opened his bedroom door as quietly as he could and looked around. All clear. He ran for the bathroom but found nothing. He tried his dad's room next. It didn't take him too long to find something that looked promising, though another shock from his band almost caused him to drop it.

Shoe polish. Less than ideal, but it was the best he could do.

Back in his room, now wearing a white shirt and pastel pink pants, Zed smeared the stuff on his hair in front of the mirror then took a comb and tried to thin out the thick goop as best he could. With another shock, it smudged on his forehead and he cursed under his breath, wiping it off. He hurried back to the bathroom again to clean the polish off his hands and what was left of it on his forehead.

All there was left to do was put on the tie and jacket. He rushed down the stairs towards the front door, just narrowly avoiding his dad seeing him as he stepped into the hallway.

"Zed?"

"Can't talk, Dad, I'm gonna be late," he shouted back, "See ya at the game!"

Outside, he ducked behind whatever he could whenever another zombie passed by. He got a few odd looks but managed to slip out through the gate.

Phase one: complete.

\- BEYOND THE BARRIER -

He made it to Addison's house right on time and successfully won over her parents, but Addison wasn't so pleased to hear what he had done.

She was worried. And Zed hated making her worry. But this was necessary. For her sake. He wasn't going to let her give up her biggest passion for him, not if he could help it.

They arrived slightly early, giving Zed a few extra minutes to himself in the locker room to wash the shoe polish out of his hair. During the date, his Z-band had shocked him three more times, and it was a welcome relief to have it back online, with only the regular soothing pulses flowing through him. He took a moment to readjust.

The rest of the team started filing in, surprised to see him already there but greeting him nonetheless, a few clapping him on the back and wishing him luck. Zed smiled and nodded and returned their well-wishing, holding onto his left wrist.

The rash was getting worse.


	5. We're In Zombieland - Part 1

**Disclaimer** \- I don't own ZOMBIES or any of the characters involved. Copyright to Walt Disney Studios

This is ever-so-slightly late, I'm sorry, I've just been pretty busy today, I got some things for an Addison cosplay!

I'm splitting this one into two parts, there ended up being two distinct time periods to the story plus I really can't keep staying up ridiculously late writing every night (it's just after midnight as I'm posting this now). Part two should be coming on Saturday.

This one-shot was inspired by a post by Tumblr user luckycheesefoodie321 about BAMM. Part one is about how the song came to be, and part two will be about Zed using it to impress Addy in the movie. I had the idea that he tweaked a few lyrics to make it fit the situation with her better so I took a shot at what one of those lines might have been originally. This turned into being more about Bonzo than I intended but uh I ain't complaining~

ALSO I've been coming up with headcanons for the names of some background zombies and I'm starting to bring a few of those in. I'll be posting all of them on Tumblr tomorrow so you can go see who's who if you're curious!

* * *

We're In Zombieland – Part 1

 _BAMM_ was theirs.

They created it as their own way to celebrate. The music was Bonzo's, the lyrics were Eliza's and the dance was Zed's, and from the moment Bonzo played it at his first zombie mash as DJ, it was all of Zombie Town's. _BAMM_ became the sound of the zombie youth, their pride anthem. A gift to their community.

Then Zed met Addison.

Let's go back a little, first…

It was just over a year or so before the zombies were transferred to Seabrook High School, a regular day in Zombie Town. The three of them were at Zed's house, hanging out in his bedroom, and to say the least, they were bored. Out of their _minds_. Zed was sprawled out on his shopping-cart chair, long limbs hanging off in every direction. His eyes were closed. Eliza, sitting on the floor with her back against the bed, tipped her head back onto the mattress. Bonzo lay there, hands behind his head, staring up at the ceiling. He was mumbling something under his breath – not words, just sounds. Music. A song. Zed opened one eye and glanced at Eliza, who shrugged at him and turned back to Bonzo. Bonzo sat up, fully aware he had an audience now, and started beatboxing, tapping out a rhythm on his leg, then against the wall behind him with his fist. Zed and Eliza were soon bobbing their heads and getting more and more into it. Eliza shifted round to face Bonzo and once she got a hang of the beat, she was rapping, with Zed following along.

" _You're in Zombieland!_ "

" _What!_ "

" _I'm in Zombieland!_ "

" _What!_ "

" _We're in Zombieland! Watch me do it like BAMM!_ "

Zed took the lead. Straightening up his chair, feet planted on the ground, he began finger-tutting. Eliza called back to him.

" _You're in Zombieland!_ "

" _What!_ "

" _I'm in Zombieland!_ " the rhythm moved from his fingers to the rest of him.

" _What!_ "

" _We're in Zombieland!_ " he got up, full-on body-popping to Bonzo's beat, " _Watch me do it like BAMM!_ " and threw himself down hard on his back, springing up again. Bonzo stopped and he and Eliza looked at each other in awe.

"Ohh, that was _good_ …!" Eliza laughed, gesturing to Bonzo to keep going, "C'mon, pick it back up, gimme something."

"You wanna take the floor?" Zed smirked, stepping to one side and offering her the space.

Eliza scoffed, "Pfft, please, you want me to dance on my draggy foot?"

"I have _seen_ you dance, 'Liza, don't wimp out on me now."

She leaned back on her hands and tilted her head, giving him her classic ' _you really wanna do this?_ ' look. In response, Zed, still smirking, jumped and slid back into the empty spot, dragging his foot across the floor. Bonzo sniggered from his place on the bed.

"Oh, now you're making fun of me?" she said sarcastically, "Alright, Bonz, hit it."

He picked up the beat again and Eliza stood up.

"I'm about to show you."

She began sliding towards Zed, dance-off style.

" _Ready for action, yeah, I'm 'bout to blow up, party's going down but I'm 'bout to go up! I got your back, no need to have worries, yeah, it's all cool, a-ain't so scary…!_ "

The boys cheered her on as she kept going.

" _And we can do a lot with a little, call on your friends when you're caught in the middle! And you should do the same like I do the same, you should be yourself, that's the coolest thing!_ "

The words kept coming and all three of them were dancing. Eliza dragging her foot, Zed bouncing and Bonzo tutting with a detached arm, which scored a laugh from the other two.

They certainly weren't bored anymore.

\- BEYOND THE BARRIER -

A few days later, Zed and Eliza were out in Zombie Town. They'd asked Bonzo to hang out with them, too, but apparently he was busy with something and wouldn't give them any details. Bonzo actually wanting to stay home for that long was surprising; either there was something very wrong, or he was working on something amazing. They got their answer soon enough, and very suddenly. They were chatting with Zane at his family's cauli-brains stand when-

" _Elizaka, Zedka_!"

They both jumped, Zed almost dropping his stick of cauliflower.

"Don't _do_ tha-" he stopped short as they turned to look at him, "What's with the keyboard?"

Bonzo was standing in front of them, beaming, his keyboard tucked securely under one arm. He held it up, stepping in between them, and placed it on the stand, not even noticing Zane's look of annoyance. Zed and Eliza came to stand on either side of him as he switched it on.

"Driza." _Listen._

He hit 'play' on a pre-recorded track. It was the same rhythm they had been rapping to the other day. His hands flew to the keys and brought out a melody on top of it. Zed and Eliza immediately perked up.

" _You're in Zombieland, I'm in Zombieland, we're in Zombieland, watch me do it like BAMM!_ "

Zane leaned forward, the invasion of his workspace forgotten.

"What is that?"

"Just a little something we came up with a couple days ago." Zed shrugged smugly. Eliza nudged him and he nudged her back.

"Sounds great," Zane said with an impressed nod.

A small cluster of zombies appeared around them. Rizzo, a girl with afro curls and one leg of her coveralls ripped off, was the first to speak.

"Hey, Bonz, that one new?"

"Za," he turned off the backing track, "Zon zav." _It's not done._

"Maybe not, but you got a solid start," Rizzo's twin brother, Zephyr, piped up.

The others nodded their heads in agreement, urging them to play some more. Zed, Eliza and Bonzo shared a look. Zed spoke for all of them.

"Alright, look, how about once it's done, we play the whole thing for you guys?"

Whoops and cheers all around.

It only took Bonzo a couple more days to record a complete demo. He hauled a large speaker and a couple of turntables out to the middle of the street and Eliza connected her computer, where she'd saved a copy of the backing track, to the setup. As the music started, a crowd formed around them. Eliza had written a full rap and Zed had a whole dance routine choreographed. By the end of it, everyone was singing along, their hands up and waving. Some even begged Zed to teach them the steps.

"Dude, you _gotta_ play that at the mash next weekend!" Alonzo, Zephyr's long-haired, always grinning friend, clapped a hand on Bonzo's shoulder.

Eliza's eyebrows shot up, "At the zombie mash? Are you serious?"

"Yeah, why not? Bonzo's, like, a musical genius or something, who's gonna say no to him?"

Bonzo looked between them, surprised but definitely interested.

"You'd make an awesome DJ, Bonz," said Izabelle, Bonzo's cousin and probably the shortest of the zombie teens, "You guys should go for it."

Zed and Eliza both looked up at Bonzo.

"It's up to you. It is your music."

He thought for only a moment.

" _Za!_ "

\- BEYOND THE BARRIER -

And just like that, Bonzo had landed his first gig as DJ at a zombie mash, the youngest to ever do so. When it came time for his set, the floor cleared, everyone waiting in anticipation. Zed and Eliza took centre stage and the room exploded with music.

 _BAMM_ was a hit. Bonzo kept coming back time and time again until he was practically the mash's regular DJ. Within a few months, every zombie in their generation had it all, the song and the dance, committed to memory. It was a celebration, after all, of their people and their community. And Zed, Eliza and Bonzo were at the centre of it. They'd never expected their song to turn into such an iconic part of zombie youth culture, but it was.

 _BAMM_ was theirs.

And then, like I said, Zed met Addison.


	6. We're In Zombieland - Part 2

**Disclaimer** \- I don't own ZOMBIES or any of the characters involved. Copyright to Walt Disney Studios

It's once again way too late for me to still be awake and people might be starting to worry about my health, but hey, here's part two! I swear I'll start writing earlier on in the day and avoid doing this to myself anymore. I fully intended to write in the afternoon but I just let myself get distracted. I'm sorry

Once again, this was inspired by that Tumblr post by luckycheesefoodie321. I really liked writing Eliza here, and her and Bonzo interacting. I like their dynamic

Also I'm having way too much fun with my Zombie-tongue translations

* * *

We're In Zombieland – Part 2

 _Then Zed met Addison._

"Bonzo!"

Bonzo looked up from his work to see Zed rushing towards him. He put down his brush as Zed came to a stop. He seemed excited about something.

"I've got an idea. You know how Bucky won't let Addison talk to me?" Bonzo nodded, "So, we gotta meet some place where there's no Bucky and no Aceys. I'm gonna bring her to Zombie Town."

Bonzo instantly went from nodding to shaking his head.

"C'mon, it's a great idea! There's the zombie mash coming up," he pointed out, "How's that for a first date?"

At the mention of the zombie mash, Bonzo's eyes widened.

"Deh _madge_? Zedka," he quickly stood up, "Ziga Addiska, zet, bak Elizaka…" _I like Addison and all, but Eliza…_

"I'm not planning on telling Eliza."

Considering this, Bonzo shrugged, "Garzedd-zig, grag varkra." _I guess it could work._

"And," Zed leaned closer, his voice dropping, "We have _got_ to do _BAMM_ for her."

"Zon," Bonzo immediately turned away, "Gra'zon varkra."

" _What?_ You just said it could," Zed followed him, "Now you don't want to?"

" _Ag_ quag, bak Elizaka egrall zon. Gra'zon grep z'agru." I _want to, but Eliza will just say no. And we can't do it without her._

"It'll be fine. She doesn't even need to know Addy's there, at least not until the song's over," he threw open his arms, "I'm gonna find a way to get her there whatever you say, and you can't _not_ play _BAMM_ at this mash. We're celebrating the integration, everybody's gonna be expecting it."

With a sigh, Bonzo gave in. Zed was right, _BAMM_ was the backbone of a good zombie mash. For a second, he almost regretted writing it. Almost. Besides, he had to admit, he had missed seeing Addison around. It could be fun.

At the next football game, during halftime, Zed stepped away as soon as he had the chance. Bonzo saw him approach the bleachers, looking right at him, and, with a brief "be right back" (in Zombie) to Eliza, he rushed down.

"I can't risk Bucky _or_ Eliza seeing me talk to Addison, can you do me a favour?" he asked, taking out a piece of yellow paper and handing it to Bonzo, "Give her this when the game ends, when they're distracted. Don't draw any attention to yourself. Got it?"

"Za." He took the note and absentmindedly folded it up as he walked back to Eliza. She saw his fidgeting.

"What's that?"

Bonzo held up the note, now in a simple origami shape.

"Garzird?" _A bird?_

It was enough of an explanation for her.

\- BEYOND THE BARRIER -

"And don't forget, we're kicking it all off with _BAMM_."

"So you keep reminding me," Eliza rolled her eyes at Zed, though she was smiling, "What's up with you? You're never like this."

"Nothing! It's just… it's a big deal, y'know?" he tried to play it off, "We got a lot to celebrate tonight."

He rubbed his arm just beneath his Z-band.

"Fine, if you don't wanna tell me the real reason…"

"That _is_ the real reason!"

"I know you better than that. But whatever. We don't have time."

"Sure don't…" Zed mumbled, craning his neck to look out the window, trying to get a look at the gate into Seabrook, with no luck, "Hey, uh, I gotta take care of something before things get started, alright? Don't panic if you can't find me, I'll be there in time."

"What _kind_ of 'something'?"

"Just something," he said, sliding past her and over to the elevator. The door opened and a group of zombies spilled out, the early arrivals. Zane high-fived him as they crossed paths, Alonzo called out a greeting, and from Roz, a shout of "Hey! Who's the zombie?!"

"I'm the zombie!" Zed called back as he entered the elevator. The door closed and his grin turned to a grimace as his arm pulsed. Not his Z-band, his arm. The muscle ached but he had to get through tonight. He held his wrist and closed his eyes, breathing deeply. When he reached the ground and the door opened again, he forced himself to smile at the second mass of zombies waiting to get on. Once he was back in there with Addison, though, he felt it was unfair not to explain himself.

When he got back to the power plant with her, everyone was there. It was the perfect way to welcome Addison to Zombie Town, with the music and the lights and all his friends surrounding them.

Eliza, dancing with the others now right behind them, went unnoticed. But she recognised that voice.

"So, you like a girl with _brains_?"

She frowned and walked over. How could Zed laugh at that?

"You know, that's super offensive."

Addison stuttered out an apology but the comment was only a minor issue compared to the glaring problem Eliza saw with this situation. She was _there_ , in _Zombie Town_ , at the _power plant_ , during _their zombie mash_. But before Eliza could say anything else, they heard the loud _thud_ of a lever being pulled and Zed was happy to disappear.

Eliza looked at Addison dismissively and she looked back, confused, then went off to find a spot to watch from. Eliza veered off on her way up to the catwalk where the light control booth was, just to hiss in Zed's ear as she passed him

"I'm only gonna do this for you, OK? Not for her."

Relieved, Zed just thanked her and they went their separate ways. She'd let him have this, if he really wanted it that much. It was time for their song, anyway. It began as it always did, Zed leading in the dance and rapping a verse. Eliza and Bonzo hit their cues. Everything was right, aside from the way Zed was directing everything at Addison.

But then he cut her off on what should have been her lines. He changed them. To fit Addison. Eliza scoffed as he reached an arm around the human girl's shoulders and she pushed him aside, leading Addison away so she take over again but he just brought it back to himself. Of course, Addison was completely oblivious to their little disagreement. As far as she knew, this was how it was.

On the surface, she was fine, but inside, Eliza was seething.

The song came to an end and Eliza strode towards Zed. He talked to Addison for a few seconds then gestured for her to go look around. As soon as her back was turned, Zed's hand clamped around his Z-band wrist and Eliza stopped. He suddenly looked uneasy. His eyes moved from his band to the crowded dance floor. Eliza shook her head and started moving again. She could ask him about that afterwards. Right now, she had a few things to say to him.

But then he ran right past her. He was too distracted to realise she was there. Blinking in surprise, Eliza turned around.

"Zed!"

He didn't hear her. He kept running, disappearing around a corner, still holding his arm.

She had another option, still.

" _Bonzo!_ "

He jumped and spun round, away from the turntables and soundboards.

"Elizaka…?"

"Did you know about that?"

He looked somewhat nervous, narrowing his eyes and speaking slowly.

"… Zon garzedd-zig."

"You know exactly what I mean," she pointed back towards the dance floor, "Addison. A human. At our zombie mash. Don't think I didn't see her over here before. Did you two plan this behind my back? Playing our song for her?"

Bonzo's head dropped, though he wasn't quite sure if he was feeling guilty… or annoyed. Eliza continued.

"He changed my lyrics. That song was meant to be _ours_ , Bonzo, remember?"

He slowly looked up, but still not right at her. He was leaning towards annoyed.

"Ru agrap, za?" _you went along with it, though, right?_ "Ru agrap zu agru zav."

 _You let him do it._

Eliza went quiet. Now she was the one avoiding his gaze. She muttered under her breath but he heard it.

"I wasn't gonna disappoint our friends. _BAMM_ is theirs, too," she sighed, "Besides, if Zed really likes her, I can't do anything about that. But it doesn't mean that _I_ have to like her."

"Goreez zon? Agru kruzrin." _Why not? She's cool._

Eliza let out a laugh, "You think everyone's cool until they don't wanna hug you."

Bonzo smirked, "Ru, agru zet, garzalk. Garzedd grag durg." _Talk to her. You might change your mind._

How many times would she have to roll her eyes in one evening for them to get the message? She huffed and folded her arms, looking down. Bonzo knew he'd gotten through to her, at least partially. She went to leave, but then hesitated for a moment. Her voice softened.

"Hey, Zed looked kinda… frazzled," she gave him a concerned look, which he returned, "I was gonna chew him out for not telling me about all this but he ran off somewhere. I think something's wrong. I'll go talk to Addison but could you check on him?"

He nodded, "Za."

He flicked on a playlist and they walked off in opposite directions.


	7. No Risk, No Reward

**Disclaimer** \- I don't own ZOMBIES or any of the characters involved. Copyright to Walt Disney Studios

Sorry for the lack of Another Girl, Another Zombie yesterday, I needed to take a break to think up a new story cuz the one I had planned next kinda skipped ahead quite far and I want something to happen sooner. Also, I'm tempted to do a little part 3 to We're In Zombieland...? I'll see how well it turns out

So, for tonight, since I wrote about Bonzo coming home from containment, I decided to write about Eliza as well. Maybe expect one for Zed too, sooner or later. I rewatched the cheer championship scene to see which zombies were helping Eliza with her plan and it was 3 that I hadn't named yet, so I've named them now~

* * *

No Risk, No Reward

A zombie uprising.

It was the only way she could think of to finally make a change. A _real_ change. But she didn't expect Zed to agree with her. Or even Bonzo. They'd both gotten themselves caught up in the humans' world. They both thought that humans could be their friends. But a handful of high school students wearing darker jackets than usual and sitting with them at lunch weren't going to help them get any further. They'd certainly proved that when they had booed every zombie at the game away.

They got the blame for it all. They got the blame for their Z-bands deactivating and they got the blame for literally losing control of themselves. When it should have gone to the cheerleaders. It should have gone to Bucky.

After what she had been through, and after pouring her heart out to Zed and Bonzo, all Eliza could do was hug her mom and follow her inside.

Her parents tried to console her. It hurt them to see her like this, to know what she and her friends had endured. But Eliza was too upset and too aggravated to sit there and talk. Too upset even to cry. She felt almost numb. She could barely even register anything either of her parents were saying, until her dad noticed this and placed a hand on his wife's shoulder.

"Zinnia," he said softly, "I think she needs some space."

Nodding, Eliza's mother slowly let go of her hand and, tilting her head up so she could meet her eyes, offered her a sad, but reassuring smile. Eliza returned the look and stood up, wiping her eye with the back of her hand as she headed upstairs.

She closed her bedroom door behind her and leaned against it, trying to take a calming breath but it came out ragged and shaking and the floodgates suddenly opened. She clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle her sobs and stood for a moment, just letting herself cry. Everything had been going so well, and all that progress they had made was ripped away from them in a matter of minutes. She couldn't help but feel somewhat guilty – she gave in when Zed begged her to hack his Z-band. That was what started all of this. If she hadn't agreed to that, he wouldn't have corrupted the software swiping right, and the Aceys wouldn't have been able to access the files.

She paused. Then let out a cold, humourless laugh.

 _She_ felt guilty.

All she had wanted was equality, respect and justice. All she had done was break one tiny rule in order to move them forward. She had warned Zed of the danger, and he didn't listen to her. Why should she feel guilty? Cheerleaders had shunned, ridiculed and provoked the zombies, cheerleaders had tried to manipulate her and _cheerleaders_ had stolen from her. But did they feel guilty? Eliza highly doubted that. She wiped her tears from her eyes and stepped away from the door. Of course they didn't. They had too much on their minds right now what with their precious cheer championship fast approaching.

Were they punished for lying or stealing or endangering their fellow students, human and zombie alike? No way. Not a chance. They were _cheerleaders_ , Seabrook's finest, and they never had to face the consequences for their actions. It was the zombies who had to deal with it. The cheer squad was still allowed to compete, and they'd most likely win yet again, Eliza thought with a scowl. Nothing about this was fair. Just for once, she'd like to see them fail. See if they could handle it. If they could finally understand what it was like to have everything you'd worked for snatched away from you.

She wanted to see them realise that zombies were so much smarter, stronger and more capable than they had thought.

She surged forward, grabbing a sheet of paper and a pen from her desk. The patrol had taken her laptop from her at the containment facility, insisting she'd get it back after a thorough investigation, which she suspected would mean returning it to her with a few files and programs mysteriously gone. At least she now had wi-fi on her Z-band. She just needed a little bit of information on the venue for the championship. A floor plan, anything about the lighting or sound systems that she could use and the roster for the competing teams. It took some time, but eventually, she had a page of scribbled notes and a sketch of a device which, she hoped, might be able to short circuit the electronics.

There was a knock on her door and her mother's voice came from the other side.

"Eliza, honey? Zed's here. He wants to talk to you."

She stopped and sighed.

"… Well, I don't want to talk to him right now."

"'Liza, c'mon," he was there, " _Please_."

"Zed, not now. Just go home, alright?"

She heard a muffled apology, an unconvincing "It's fine" then retreating footsteps.

Zed wasn't going to help her now. She didn't expect Bonzo would, either. They were still living in hope that the humans could change, but Eliza knew that change wasn't just going to show up and knock down the barrier. They had to do that for themselves. She'd have to be careful picking who would help her, though. A surprising number of zombies agreed with them. One name came to mind. She could, Eliza remembered, message her over the Z-bands now.

 **Eliza:** _I've got a plan, meet me early tomorrow, before school._

 **Topaz:** _You're not asking Zed or Bonz?_

 **Eliza:** _They won't listen to reason_

 **Topaz:** _I get you. Want me to bring back-up?_

 **Eliza:** _Definitely. Whoever you can get_

\- BEYOND THE BARRIER -

Eliza was already out of the house long before Zed knocked on her door as usual. She was at the gate into Seabrook, with Topaz, and two other zombies she had brought along – Lazlo and Zora. She had explained her plan, given them all the details she had found, and already they were onboard. When the others started to arrive, Eliza avoided Zed and Bonzo as best she could, giving them only a short "hi". She stuffed the plans into her locker as the bell rang and was about to follow the others to class when they were stopped by a patrol officer. Who, without explanation, informed them all that they were being sent back down to the basement.

They were told it was only temporary. Mr Zeck was back again, as well, but far more sympathetic now. There was an air of unease around the room. No-one knew what was going on. Zed and Bonzo tried to get Eliza's attention but to no avail. She stuck with Topaz, Lazlo and Zora. At the end of the day, the real bomb was dropped on them by Principal Lee herself.

"Starting tomorrow, you all will be transferred back to Zombie Town's school until further notice."

"Zombie Town?

"We're going back to zombies-only school?"

" _What?_ "

"What for? What did _we_ do?"

The responses ranged from shock to confusion to fear to anger, but none of them could do anything about it. It had been decided. They couldn't fight back. They were made to leave, right there and then. They were told to have their lockers cleared out in the morning, which didn't help them feel any better. Topaz shot Eliza a determined expression and she shot one back.

She didn't feel the need to go back to school the following morning just to clear her locker out. It didn't matter anyway. Most of the things left in there, she no longer had any use for. And she wouldn't need the plans she'd drawn up, since Zora had made a copy. She had work to do, and she wasn't going to waste another second. She had a cheer championship to get to.


	8. One Kid Too Many

**Disclaimer** \- I don't own ZOMBIES or any of the characters involved. Copyright to Walt Disney Studios

My upload schedule was almost falling apart there but I think I might still be able to stick to it

I've had this idea since the first time I watched ZOMBIES, I even mentioned it in my first Tumblr post about the movie. This mostly just came from a desire to see Bonzo and Zoey interacting directly, since we see him playing with Zander next to her. I feel like he'd make a good stand-in big brother for her when Zed's not around. Or just a second big brother, really. So here's some cute Bonzo-and-Zoey-are-practically-siblings. The next Another Girl, Another Zombie installment is gonna kinda match up with this one~

* * *

One Kid Too Many

Tonight, Eliza was babysitting.

Although she did consider hanging out with Zed and Bonzo to be basically babysitting, this time, it was for Zoey. Mr Necrodopolous was taking Zed to get his Z-band's battery replaced and the process could take a while, which was mostly down to the zombie patrol officers at the containment facility having some skewed priorities and very little concern for taking up zombies' time. And on top of that, they didn't seem to care when was an appropriate time for a _zombie_ to book an appointment, only when _they_ were available. So, Zed's appointment ended up being late at night and Zoey needed someone to watch her, feed her and get her to bed on time. Eliza was the obvious first choice.

As she was leaving the house, Eliza noticed Bonzo still outside. Despite the setting sun, he was on his knees, wearing his mask and spraying some kind of board a dark green. She could see tape on it in the shape of a few Zombie letters, evidently still to be painted. He looked up as soon as she stepped off her porch, removing the mask and standing up. Before she could even cross the street, Bonzo was walking over to her.

"Geh, Elizaka?" he called out and she stopped, "Ru Zoeka aza?" _You're watching Zoey?_

"Yeah, why?"

"Grag ag grep, za?" _Can I help?_ "Gra'zon zet varkra zu garzun zav…" _Can't keep working with the sunlight gone…_

Eliza cocked her head knowingly, raising an eyebrow, "Is that the only reason?"

"…Ziga Zoeka," he said with a shrug, not meeting her eyes.

Casting a glance back at Bonzo's house, Eliza smiled sadly in understanding, "We all like Zoey. I get it. C'mon."

Bonzo, giving her a grateful smile, went to prop up the board he had been painting against the porch then followed her across the street to Zed's house. Yes, he liked spending time with Zoey and yes, he couldn't keep working on his project out in the dark, but there was evidently something keeping him from going home. If he wanted an excuse to avoid his parents for the night, Eliza was happy to give him one.

"But I'm not splitting my pay with you, though, got it?" she told him, pointing at him with false authority.

Bonzo nodded, "Za."

Eliza knocked on the door and Zed answered. He smiled at them both.

"Hey, guys. You helping out, Bonz?"

Bonzo shrugged and Eliza tilted her head towards the other side of the street.

"Yeah, he didn't really have anything better to do, if you know what I mean."

Zed's dad appeared at that moment, greeting Eliza and Bonzo with a nod, immediately accepting that Bonzo was there as well. He was used to the boy being over at the house, often at random. He gave them the normal rundown – Zoey was watching some cartoon, there was food to be microwaved and put her to bed before 9pm at the very latest. Then he called for Zoey, who was there in seconds with Zander tucked under her arm. She ran to hug Eliza but then she caught sight of Bonzo behind her.

" _Bonnie!_ " She jumped out of Eliza's arms and straight into his. He hoisted her up and sat her on his hip, leaving Eliza with a lost look of " _Really?_ " on her face. Zed and his dad both laughed as Bonzo stuck out his tongue at her.

"Alright, you kids have fun. We'll be back in a couple hours."

Once they had left, Eliza led the way into the living room, where she collapsed onto the couch and Bonzo lowered Zoey onto the floor, sitting down beside her. Zoey handed Zander over to Bonzo, took the remote and turned up the volume. Eliza sat back, guessing she wasn't going to tear either of them away from the screen anytime soon. Bonzo was watching just as intently as Zoey. After a minute or two, though, he glanced over at her and, while she was distracted, he poked her arm with Zander's paw. She turned to him and scowled, unable to hide the smile underneath, while he quickly looked back at the TV, bringing Zander into his lap. Zoey sat up so she could reach and prodded Bonzo's side, pulling her knees up to her chest and trying to feign innocence through her stifled giggles when he turned to look at her.

There was a pause as Bonzo thought. He smirked and slowly held out Zander towards her. Zoey peered at him out of the corner of her eye, trying not to smile, until he attacked, making Zander "lick" her face and they both erupted with laughter as she unsuccessfully tried to push him off. She eventually tore Zander out of Bonzo's hands and threw him back, hitting Bonzo square in the chest. He gasped, picking Zander up and holding him close. He shot Zoey a look of fake anger and gently stroked Zander's ears.

"Ru zorr agru!" _You hurt him!_

Zoey gaped, "No I didn't! Eliza!" she turned around to look at her, pointing accusingly at Bonzo, "He started it!"

Eliza just lay back, her arms folded across her chest, and shook her head, laughing.

"You did start it, Bonz."

Bonzo gasped again and looked from Eliza to Zoey and then down at Zander, who he made nod. He pouted and tossed him back over to Zoey, rolling his eyes, and she hugged her toy. Eliza kicked her feet onto the floor and sat up.

"I'm gonna go get the food ready. You two behave."

She gave Bonzo a pointed look and stood, heading for the kitchen.

And while she was in there, she heard surprisingly little from the living room. Upon returning, she found them whispering together and grinning.

"… What are you talking about?"

They jumped apart.

"Nothing!

"Zonzig!"

"… Right…"

\- BEYOND THE BARRIER -

Zoey was tucked up in bed, at last, and Eliza and Bonzo were watching TV, although Bonzo was growing bored with Eliza's choice of programming. Mostly because she couldn't really decide what to watch and kept flipping through the channels. He sat with his head tipped over the back of the couch, drumming his hands on his legs.

"Ssh, I'm trying to watch this."

"Zon."

Eliza shoved him and he shoved her back, getting up.

"Regur grik." _Be right back._

"K." She didn't look up, assuming he was just going to the bathroom.

But then it was ten minutes later and he wasn't back. Fifteen minutes. Twenty. Eliza frowned and went to the bottom of the stairs.

"Bonzo…?" she listened for a few seconds and thought she heard muffled voices and shushing, "Ugh…"

She stormed up the stairs, pushing open Zoey's bedroom door to see…

"… You're having a tea party?" her face and voice went completely flat.

Zoey's eyes went wide but Bonzo just smiled and shrugged. Zoey was sitting on an old wooden stool with Zander in a plastic chair beside her. Bonzo sat on the floor at Zoey's makeshift table (a crate), leaning back on one hand and holding a tiny plastic cup in the other, his pinky finger sticking out. Eliza looked from one to the other, at a loss for words. Eventually, she put one hand on her hip and pointed at Bonzo.

"Look, I am only getting paid to watch _one_ little kid."

He raised his cup in a toast to her, brought it to his lips and tipped it back.


	9. A Helping Hack

**Disclaimer** \- I don't own ZOMBIES or any of the characters involved. Copyright to Walt Disney Studios

Once again, I was writing too late last night and ended up having to finish and upload today. I might give up on the fixed update schedule

This is the shortest story in the collection~ I posted this headcanon on Tumblr not too long ago and people seemed to like it so here it is in fic form. There's a bit of me projecting in here, I was in the same position a couple of years ago. Also the wording of things later on in this is just my personal way of seeing autism so I understand if you see it a different way. Anyway, here is a young Bonzo starting to figure himself out

* * *

A Helping Hack

He'd only started to understand it recently – understand himself. Understand why he _didn't_ understand so much. Only a couple of years ago, in fact.

He would stumble over his words, stutter, miss out words completely at times and just clam up, unable to say anything, when he tried to speak in English, even though his mind was racing at a thousand miles an hour with ideas and questions. He used Zombie-tongue more often once he realised it didn't take so much thought. Or as many words. And eventually that was all he'd use, until his parents were getting sick of it. They insisted he shouldn't need to rely on the old language, that he was just making things complicated. He rarely spoke at all around them.

He missed things sometimes. Offhand jokes, the tiniest change in someone's expression. Whether or not zombies were even interested in what he was saying. He just didn't catch it. His parents told him he was being inconsiderate. He was being rude. But that only made him more confused.

Sometimes sounds were too loud. Sometimes loud was _exactly_ what he needed.

He reacted so badly to fire, so much worse than any other zombie.

He didn't look other zombies in the eye if he could help it. Or he faked it.

He got so fixated on things.

When he was twelve years old, Bonzo got tired of questioning all of it. He needed answers. And the most obvious answer, as far as he could tell, was that there was something wrong with his Z-band. The Z-bands were supposed to reactivate a zombie's brain – help them think and move and speak. Help them function.

He definitely wasn't feral. He wasn't attacking anyone or craving flesh and brains. He knew he was _capable_ of speaking English, if he just had the time and freedom to think about it, even if it turned out to be just a few words. He moved well enough. It seemed like his band was working, but it might not have been fully operational. It could be some kind of bug or coding error, he didn't really know enough about electronics to be able to pin down exactly what the problem was. But it had to be something along those lines.

How could he find out? Getting it professionally checked would mean going to the containment facility, and Bonzo refused to even consider that option. He was unsettled just going there to get his batteries replaced twice a year, to say the least. And the patrol officers and so-called "doctors" there were so rough with him. Bringing it up to his parents would no doubt land him there in the end.

Thankfully, there was another possibility. Eliza knew a thing or two about tech. She'd even hacked into her own Z-band not too long ago and got it to run video games that were restricted for zombies. Hacking Bonzo's band just to see what was wrong couldn't be so hard for her.

" _Hack_ it?"

"Za."

"Let me take a look at it first," Eliza held out her hand and Bonzo gave her his left wrist. She examined the band front to back then tapped the screen, swiping through settings and status information until she accidently hit a wrong button. Bonzo yelped and pulled his hand away as the band shocked him, "Sorry! …I can't see anything wrong with it."

"Greh hack-ga." _So hack it._

He was so determined, Eliza had to give in because he certainly wouldn't. She reached into her backpack for her computer.

"OK. Just this once. Give me a few minutes to find it in the database. You know your code…?"

\- BEYOND THE BARRIER -

She'd been scanning through files and stats for what seemed like hours with Bonzo watching over her shoulder, although he had no idea what anything on the computer screen meant, but Eliza couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. She sighed and sat back.

"Nothing."

Bonzo's gaze shifted from the computer to her. He frowned, looking confused and slightly worried. " _Zonzig?_ "

"Everything checks out. It's not your Z-band."

He sat for a moment, thinking. Eventually, Bonzo closed his eyes and lay down on the ground beside Eliza, his hands coming up to his face.

"Greh, goreez ag zozig…?"

 _Then what's wrong with me…?_

He looked close to tears and Eliza felt her heart drop.

"… This is really getting to you, huh?" she asked softly and he nodded, "Are your mom and dad still on your back about this? You know, they've gotta come around sooner or later. You don't need an explanation now."

" _Quag_ ," _I_ want _one_ , "Gra'zon agru garzedd durg." _They won't change their minds._

"… Maybe we can find something…" Eliza returned to her computer, closing down the Z-band window and opening the internet. Bonzo immediately sat up and shuffled closer. With Eliza prompting him, he explained to her every problem he could think of. Still, she didn't find much.

"Wait," she said, looking at him, "What if it's not a zombie thing?"

She deleted "zombie" from the search terms and this time she didn't ignore the obviously-human-focused results. Bonzo leaned forward, directing her to different pages, reading each one intently and with every one, he was getting more and more interested, more excited, even.

"Autism?"

"Za…" he muttered, not taking his eyes off the screen, "Magra." _Maybe._

Eliza cocked her head, letting Bonzo take the computer, "I don't think we have a word for that…"

"Zon," Bonzo shook his head, "… Bragan? Garzedd bragan?"

"Like 'problem', or…?"

He shook his head again. He knew the English word but he couldn't quite say it. Eliza took a guess.

"Disability?"

"Za."

She looked over the page he was reading, "I mean, I guess that's kinda what it is."

Bonzo was only vaguely listening, completely engrossed.

He had a lot to learn.


	10. It's Alive - Part 1

**Disclaimer** \- I don't own ZOMBIES or any of the characters involved. Copyright to Walt Disney Studios. Zombie Prom is written by John Dempsey

Sorry for taking so long with this. I've always either been busy or couldn't stay up to write. But anyway, here's a new BtB one-shot! And they're doing Zombie Prom, the musical I referenced in Do I Look Green?, in fact that reference came from the song I named this one-shot after! This one just came from the realisation that if Zed played Jonny in Zombie Prom, he'd have to wear makeup to look human at the start of the play instead of to look like a zombie for the rest of it, then I added Eliza and a bit of Bonzo and this happened

* * *

It's Alive

Maybe they were trying to be progressive, or ironic, or something but Zed just found it funny that Seabrook High had decided to put on Zombie Prom as their school musical that year.

As much as he loved singing and dancing, he hadn't really given acting a try before but it was obvious they were going to cast one of the actual zombie students to play Jonny and when he heard about the show's story, he couldn't not audition. The role was practically made for him. A zombie in love with a human girl in a picture-perfect high school fighting for his rights? He was sure he'd inspired the drama department in making their choice. It was practically his freshman year experience except the zombie had started out human.

He _was_ the only zombie in the show, but that didn't mean he wasn't in good company. Addison was, of course, his co-star as Toffee, Bree was playing Toffee's friend Candy, Lacey and Stacey were her other friends Ginger and Coco, Tracey was Jonny's friend Josh and Bucky had somehow landed the role of Eddie Flagrante, the reporter. Zed had to admit, the character did have a certain flare for dramatics that Bucky pulled off not-so-surprisingly well. What _was_ odd, even if Bucky had made a few changes recently, was how enthusiastic he was about zombie rights in the show. It was like he'd gone from one extreme to the other.

Bonzo had been all too eager to get on board, even if there wasn't any place for him in the cast, and Zed couldn't help wondering how he was handling both music and painting sets. He did have a sneaking suspicion, however, that Bonzo was also doing it so he could watch Bree during rehearsals. He'd already caught his friend casting glances over to her side of the stage here and there. Zed couldn't blame him, he found himself distracted by Addison's performance to the point he'd miss his cues.

And Eliza… she was on the tech crew. Zed expected her to be excited about it but apparently not. Or, well, she did seem happy enough with the job itself but she never looked too pleased to be at rehearsals, watching them onstage. He shrugged it off at first but it was always playing on his mind.

The one thing about Seabrook having a _real_ zombie to play Jonny in Zombie Prom was that instead of making him up to look dead from halfway through the first act, Zed would have to be made up to look fully alive up until halfway through the first act. Bonzo immediately volunteered to try turn his friend temporarily human; a face was just another canvas, as far as he was concerned, and he always liked to challenge his art skills. One day, the three of them were in the wings while the humans of the cast were out onstage running lines. Zed was sat in front of Bonzo on a stool, forced to put up with having one hand clamped around the top of him head holding him in place, or turning and tilting him back and forth and up and down, while he was attacked from all angles with a sponge and a brush, alternatively.

Zed took a chance while Bonzo had to squeeze out more of the cream and looked at Eliza, who was checking light cues on her laptop, with a smile.

"This'd be so much easier if I could still just swipe right, huh?"

She slowly lifted her gaze to him with the most unimpressed look she could muster.

"I swear, if you bring that up one more time I'm gonna rip both your arms off and stow them in my locker and you'll never play football again."

Zed's eyebrows shot up and he held up his hands in defeat but then he grinned. Until Bonzo grabbed him and turned him around again.

"Zrayn vrix!" _Stay still!_

" _OK_ , sorry!" Zed flicked his eyes back over to Eliza, trying not to disrupt Bonzo's work again, "But it totally would be easier…" he mumbled and Eliza's head shot up and she pointed at him threateningly.

"I'm warning you!"

Zed pulled a face and she pulled one back.

" _Zav!_ " _Stop it!_

Zed's face dropped again and Eliza gave him a smug smirk. There was a pause, the only sound being the sponge against Zed's face. Eliza cocked her head.

"What're you gonna do with your hair?"

He waited a second to let Bonzo pull away before answering, "I dunno. Wear a wig, probably? Isn't Addy gonna have to wear a wig again for this? Or I could try one of those hairspray colours? Would that stick to zombie hair?"

Eliza and Bonzo both shrugged. They'd find something.

Bonzo checked over his work and nodded, "Grodge." _OK._

"How do I look?" Zed finally turned all the way round to face Eliza and posed.

"Terrifying," she said in a monotone and Zed gave her a blank look.

"Haha," he stood up and went to the mirror propped against the wall to examine himself, "Nice work, Bonz!" he reached over and pounded his fist, then laughed, "Yeah, maybe this is better than swiping right, way less painful."

"Ah…!"

"I didn't suggest actually doing it, I said it's better that I didn't! I am keeping my arms _on!_ "

"… Fine…"

Zed watched her for a moment as Bonzo cleaned up.

"… What's your problem with this show anyway?"

"Are you kidding me? How about the rampant zombiephobia on every other page of the script?"

"That's _part_ of the stor-"

"Or the fact that there's only one zombie in the whole thing, and he starts out as a human?"

Zed glanced at Bonzo, who clearly wasn't going to get involved, and back at her, "… Our grandparents were humans, Eliza. Isn't this supposed to be set around the same time as the outbreak?"

"So?"

"Y'know, whoever wrote this probably didn't know about Seabrook's zombies. We're only _in_ Seabrook."

She just scoffed. He did have a point there, she had to admit. But only to herself. Zed continued.

"And the entire second act is me fighting for zombie rights."

"That doesn't excuse all the death jokes and stuff about falling apart or whatever. Like, are you even _listening_ to this right now?"

They fell silent as they heard Stacey's voice coming from the stage.

"Ginger's right, Jonny's a dead subject."

Zed rolled his eyes.

"Or your big number when you come out all zombified, Blast From The Past? C'mon. Everybody screaming 'tales of terror' and 'house of horrors'? 'Demon from beyond the tomb'? ' _Monster mister_ '?" Plus, the whole 'zombie rights' thing," she said it with air quotes, "Is oversimplified, anyway."

And _she_ had a point there.

"Then why did you even wanna get involved?"

She shrugged, keeping her eyes locked on the computer screen suddenly, "I just… wanted to give this techie thing a try, so what?"

Zed smirked and raised an eyebrow, a look that said "I'm not buying it". She gave in.

"OK, look, you, Addison and every other human we're friends with is in the play and Bonzo's over there painting sets and playing music?"

"Garzace-grarg, zet."

" _And_ doing makeup? What else am I supposed to do while you're all busy, just sit around at home bored while you're here?"

"Aw, would you feel too lonely without us?"

"No…!"

The boys looked at each other, smirking, then turned it on Eliza.

"… Maybe…" she huffed, "I still don't like this musical, though."

Zed shrugged, "That's fair. It does have a few problems."


	11. Tower Of Mistakes

**Disclaimer** \- I don't own ZOMBIES or any of the characters involved. Copyright to Walt Disney Studios

Hey, it's the shortest fic in the collection! Time to see what happened with Zed when he came home from containment, so a tie-in with Closed Doors and No Risk, No Reward. Angsty and emotional, as is the custom. BtB updates are probably gonna become more random from now on, seeing as I keep struggling to find the time during the day and falling asleep while writing at night, AGAZ is almost over and I want to see if I can get the Big Project started, plus the Bronzo AU

QUICK NOTE: I'm going back over past BtB one-shots and editing, it's mostly just fixing typos and rewording things here and there but We're In Zombieland Part 1 has a detail added in - Izabelle, one of the background zombies, is Bonzo's cousin. I have an idea in mind that involves them being related so I thought I should add that in. I might also mention it briefly in the next one-shot, which is once again about Bonzo

And to the guest reviewer from a few days ago: I wasn't intending on taking requests, these are mostly from my own headcanons, but I'll see if I can find somewhere to slip your idea in if I can~! Thank you ^^/

And yes, this is named after the song from Steven Universe

* * *

Tower Of Mistakes

" _You don't have to change who you are, Zed, I love who you are."_

" _Yeah, but they don't."_

Zed was ushered inside by his father, oddly quiet, contemplative. Zevon watched him in silence for a moment or two. It broke his heart to see his son like this; the last time Zed had looked so lost was after his mother had died. But soon after that, he'd sworn to keep upbeat, never let himself feel discouraged or alone or afraid. He said it was for Zoey's sake, and it was to an extent, but it was more for himself. So that he didn't end up just… thinking. Thinking only reminded him of everything wrong with the world. Why dwell on what was wrong when you could take action and make it right?

Now, he didn't know what action to take. He stood there in the hallway with no clue what to do. That was unlike him, Zed always had a plan. Always. But he was thinking too much.

"You OK, Zed?"

Zed blinked and shook himself from his daze. Or he tried to.

"I-I… I'm not sure," he shrugged, nowhere near as big as he usually did, "I dunno, maybe you were right, Dad, maybe I shouldn't have joined the team in the first place. It was stupid thinking one good human meant anything for the rest of 'em…"

Zevon grabbed his arm, coming closer just like he had outside.

"Don't ever let me hear you talk like that, son. Look at what you did. You changed things, you started something amazing at that school."

"Yeah, and then I screwed everything up!"

"But you still did it. You did it once, and you can do it again. You can give it another try, with a little more time and a little more thought. Zed, I am so proud of you. You got zombies further than we've ever gone before. That was _you_. But don't put your life on the line next time. There's always a better way, you don't have to sacrifice yourself like that. You got that?"

"I got it. Thanks, Dad…"

"Good. You better. Now, go get yourself cleaned up and changed."

\- BEYOND THE BARRIER -

He was still _thinking_ after he had showered and was changing back into his regular old zombie uniform when he noticed the bedroom door creep open a bit. A soft knock came from the other side as a little face peaked around the door.

"Zed…?" Zoey clung to the door, looking close to tears.

He was struck by how her voice was shaking, unable to move at first. Then he slowly walked towards her as she stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. He crouched down in front of her and she flung her arms around his neck. She finally let herself cry with her face buried in her brother's chest.

"Hey, hey…" he murmured and stroked her hair, "It's OK, everything's alright now…"

"I was so scared, Zed…!"

Zed let out a shuddering breath.

"I-I'm sorry, Zoey… I'm sorry you had to see me like that…"

"I was scared _for_ you," she lifted her head, sniffling and furiously wiping the tears spilling down her cheeks, "You were just trying to help us and they ruined everything and they _hurt_ you. You didn't do anything wrong! And Eliza and Bonnie didn't either! Y-you didn't deserve that…"

She let out another sob and Zed pulled back in, muffling her voice.

"I was scared that… they wouldn't let you come back home…"

He pressed his lips to her forehead and carefully picked her up.

"Shh… C'mere, green bean…" he moved to sit on his bed with Zoey in his lap and looked her in the eyes, "I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere. Besides, there's a whole lot more I've still gotta do."

"You think we'll be OK?"

Zed sighed. This was serious, he couldn't lie to her. He couldn't pretend it would all just work itself out. "It's gonna be a lot of work. I dunno if we can really fix everything, but we're gonna do what we can. Alright?"

"Alright." Zoey nodded, blinking away the last of her tears and giving him a small smile. He hugged her once more and she kissed his cheek.

"I love you, Zed."

"Love you, too, Zoey."

She slid out of his lap and let herself out. Zed sat for a moment, thinking again. He was starting to realise maybe he _should_ think more often. Really think. He got up and made his way down the stairs, finding his dad in the kitchen.

"Hey, uh… I should probably go talk to Eliza. We need to figure out what to do about all this."

Zevon nodded, "Good plan."


	12. Vent Art

**Disclaimer** \- I don't own ZOMBIES or any of the characters involved. Copyright to Walt Disney Studios

Yea, the upload schedule is definitely done for. If you missed it last time, I've edited We're In Zombieland Part 1 to mention one of the background zombies I named, Izabelle, is Bonzo's cousin and I briefly mention her here. She's the short zombie with dark, curly hair and long green sleeves. I got this idea and really ran with it. It's basically a bunch of my headcanons for Bonzo thrown together. Autism, bad relationship with his parents, staying up late to work on projects and being super groggy/grouchy in the mornings, and the fact he painted at least two of the murals in the power plant. And Izabelle. I had fun with this one. The final chapter of AGAZ will be up soon, btw~

Also the thing about Z, the first zombie, is partly canon. I got it from the production designer, Mark Hofeling's website. Go look it up because there's a lot of cool stuff about the sets and some extra info like that on there (I am completely disregarding his pronunciation guide for the Zombie-tongue alphabet though, it sounds nothing like what is said in the movie)

* * *

Vent Art

It was one of the first times he'd try to bring up autism to his parents. They weren't listening. They pretty much never listened to him, but this hit harder than any other time. They just refused to believe him, to understand. They'd scoff and roll their eyes and talk down to him over and over again. As if they knew him better than he knew himself. As if they knew what he was going through. As if they ever even paid attention long enough to know.

But this time, instead of shutting himself in his room, Bonzo left the house.

He was about to go up to his room, he'd picked up his art case with the intension of taking out his frustration in some painting, but then he thought again. He looked at his dad standing in the living room doorway, took the few steps back down and stormed out.

The sun was setting. If not at his own home, he had to be inside _somewhere_ before the curfew started. He'd shown up out of the blue on both Eliza's and Zed's doorsteps on multiple occasions but this wasn't like those times. He was _angry_ , and Bonzo was so rarely angry. It wouldn't do any good to go to Izabelle's house and turn it into some big family matter. Besides, Izabelle would just get angry, too. Either at Bonzo for disturbing her, or at her aunt and uncle for treating him the way they did. And an angry Izabelle was so much worse than an angry Bonzo.

He wasn't going to give in and go back inside, though. Even if the patrol would be driving in soon to enforce curfew. He slung his art case over his shoulder and took off down the street. At this point, he needed some time to himself anyway. He slowed down as the sky grew dark. He still didn't know where to go. He heard a metallic clanging followed by a scraping – the barrier was opening. That meant the zombie patrol was here. He ran for the nearest building that wasn't a house and ducked inside.

The power plant.

He'd been there a handful of times before, for the zombie mashes, and it had been incredible. The loud, pulsing music shaking his bones and almost making it feel like his heart was beating and the bright lights he could stare at for hours. But there was no mash tonight. He crouched in a corner just inside of the entrance, peaking out of a broken window. A jeep rolled by and the street was quiet again. Bonzo shifted his focus to the room he found himself in. Way back when, this could have been considered a foyer but now it was too rundown to be considered anything at all. It was upstairs that the zombies had made their communal second home. With one more glance outside, Bonzo went to the elevator.

This floor was always alive with excitement during a mash but now it was empty, dark and silent. There were a few spots of colour – some Zombie-tongue graffitied on the walls and the plastic light fixtures and decorations, unilluminated now. Finding a lever on the wall, Bonzo turned on the lights and they flickered then burned bright. He walked forward.

He came to a smaller room. He pulled the lever by the door and a thousand lightbulbs came to life; the light garden. The lights somehow eased his nerves and he went to sit on the platform, placing his art case on the floor at his feet. As he looked around at the twinkling lights against the bare walls, he couldn't help feeling something was missing. He shook the thought away and instead began to think about what this place was. What it had been. This was where the zombie race had begun, almost fifty years ago. This was their origin.

And for a few minutes, he hated it. He hated what had happened here and what it had led to. The terrible conditions they lived in, the unfair treatment, the rules and restrictions. But most of all, in that moment, he hated that _he_ had to be a zombie. That was the only real reason his parents weren't listening to him – "a zombie can't have autism". If the accident had never happened, they would have been born human, and so would he. Would they have listened if they were in some other world, or on some other timeline, where the outbreak never happened? Bonzo wasn't normally selfish, he was the one who always put his friends first. But right now, he was on his own in a huge, abandoned building thinking about the argument, and he couldn't help it. He only had himself to think about. He wished he could have been human for no other reason but so his parents would accept it as a possibility.

 _Don't think like that._

He sighed and shook his head.

 _This is who you are. This is what you are._

Because, really, despite all the struggles and hardships that came with it, Bonzo liked being a zombie. He couldn't imagine how different things would be if he were human. He had the life he had because he was a zombie. He had the friends he had because he was a zombie.

Their grandparents had endured containment and experiments so that they could live normally with their Z-bands. He thought back to what his dad had said, that the Z-band fixed "problems". That they were what made it impossible for zombies to be autistic. That wasn't right. It was his Z-band that let him think coherently so that he could understand that he was autistic. It was his Z-band that helped his muscles move smoothly so that he could paint and sculpt and play music and sing. It was everyone's Z-bands that made them a community, a society.

Slowly, Bonzo stood and picked up his art case again. He moved towards the bare wall opposite, gazing up at it. An image was forming in his head. He opened the case.

Brushes, sponges, even a roller were tipped onto the floor, along with every tube and pot of green, yellow and black paint he had on him. Once he got into one of these creatives rushes, Bonzo couldn't stop himself. Think black lines outlined zombie bodies in a crowd, then two more appeared in the centre, holding their band-clad wrists in the air. That was what he was envisioning. At some point, Bonzo wrenched off his right arm, still holding a brush dripping black paint, and held it up.

He wouldn't have been able to do that if he'd been born human.

He did have to find something to stand on eventually, but he kept his arm detached to reach just that little bit higher. Then, out of nowhere, he heard the unmistakable sound of the elevator door sliding open. He reattached his arm, hurriedly throwing the art supplies back into the case and kicking it under the platform. After turning off the lights, hopefully before anyone saw that they were ever on, he slipped under as well. The lights were still on in the main hall, though. That must have been what alerted the patrol to investigate. He heard voices noting the lights and shuffled further back. Before too long, a couple of officers were in the light garden, shining their flashlights. A beam hit the face of one of the zombie figures he had painted and the officer snorted.

"Look at this! Where'd these freaks learn to draw?"

"They call that art?" his partner laughed, "What's with all the lines? Going for abstract? As if some braindead monster could understand that sorta thing."

Bonzo bit his tongue before he could so much as growl.

Their flashlights then fell on the platform and Bonzo held his breath, closed his eyes and ducked his head. He tried to get into a position where he might look like just another old piece of debris lying around the plant. And it seemed to work because after circling round the platform and checking the corners of the room, the two officers were gone. He kept still until the lights outside turned off and the he heard the elevator opening again. Another few seconds for it to close. He let out a long breath and crawled out, dragging his art case out with him. He felt along the wall for the lever and once the lights were back on, he went right back to painting.

It had to be way past midnight by the time he was finished but Bonzo was determined to stay awake. He hadn't had such a big artistic surge in a long time and he was going to savour it. With his tools and paints packed away again, he went back out into the main hall, quickly finding the lever for the lights since it was unlikely that the zombie patrol would be around this late at night. And what got his attention now was the doors of the elevator.

He'd spent so much of his time in the plant thinking about the zombies; their society, their history, everything that made them who they were. He remembered the stories about the first recorded zombie, the first to be taken in for cure "tests". He had been stripped of his human name and instead was labelled Z. Just Z. It was in his honour that zombies gave their children names containing the letter 'Z'.

With that in mind, Bonzo opened his case yet again.

\- BEYOND THE BARRIER -

At the sound of the elevator doors opening, Bonzo snapped awake. He had fallen asleep so close to finishing the painting on the doors and was right there in plain sight for whoever was about to step out to see, brushes and paints scattered around him. Although he was blurry-eyed and groggy after his long night, he wasn't about to get caught and he tried his best to hide in what little time he had.

His panicked face fell when he saw Zed come out of the doors and he slumped back onto the floor.

"Ru ag zakra." _You woke me up._

"Well, _sorry_ , I wasn't sure you'd even be in here, let alone right outside the door."

Zed knew very well that morning-Bonzo was a whole lot different to any-other-time-Bonzo. _This_ Bonzo was grouchy, irritable and, at this current time, lying back down on the concrete floor already.

"Dude, you're just gonna go back to sleep?" Zed asked and Bonzo gave him a flat look, "Have you been up here all night?"

"Za…" he closed his eyes, resting his head on his arm, "Grog, gry. Ag garzeep." _Now, shut up. I'm sleeping._

"Bonzo," Zed nudged him with a foot and Bonzo glared but propped himself up on his arm, "I went to your place this morning and your mom said you stormed outta the house last night. She thought you would've gone to my place or Eliza's or something but you've been _here_? All night? What were you even doing?"

Bonzo paused, looking down, then lifted his gaze up, past Zed, who turned around and finally noticed the painting on the doors.

"Whoa…" he let out an impressed laugh and glanced at Bonzo, "You never cease to amaze me, buddy. Did you spend all night on this?"

"Zon," Bonzo sat up and rubbed his eyes, seeing as he clearly wouldn't get back to sleep anytime soon, "Ah gezer."

" _Another one?_ "

"Garzight garzrea."

Zed immediately turned and headed for the light garden. Bonzo groaned and lay back down.

"Zall grog?" _I have to walk now?_ But he got up again and followed.

When he stepped into the room, Zed was already sitting on the platform, leaning back and admiring the mural. Bonzo joined him, suddenly looking at his work with concern.

"… Ru garzedd-zig, agru zorog?" _Do you think they'll mind?_

"No way. Everyone's gonna love this," he said. There was a pause, and then Zed turned to Bonzo, "OK, look. I know you, Bonz. You don't just sneak out or break into places or spend all night on painting huge murals in abandoned buildings just for fun. What's on your mind?"


	13. We're In Zombieland - Part 3

**Disclaimer** \- I don't own ZOMBIES or any of the characters involved. Copyright to Walt Disney Studios

I know, it's been a while... I hit a block lately but I've just had a pretty big creative surge and plotted out a bunch of stuff. I'm at a convention this weekend (cosplaying white haired!Addison and my zombiesona/OC Lizzy) so I may or may get stuff uploaded but I will be writing and I'll have more fics up soon~! I have 2 more BtB one-shots planned and hopefully I'll come up with more, I've figured out the first 2 parts of the Big Project, and I have rough plot ideas for the Bronzo AU. I also want to do another one-shot collection about the background zombies

This one is really short but I wanted to give the We're In Zombieland story a solid ending

* * *

We're In Zombieland – Part 3

" _Ru, agru zet, garzalk. Garzedd grag durg."_

Bonzo had been right. So maybe it had taken some time, but Eliza did change her mind in the end.

He and Zed were prepared for some pushback when they brought up the idea of inviting some of the humans to a block party in Zombie Town to her, but they were surprised when she only took a moment to consider it, then shrugged.

"Sure. Sounds cool."

The boys glanced at each other.

"… Really?" Zed raised an eyebrow, smiling hopefully.

"Yeah," Eliza picked up her bag and started down the hall, Zed and Bonzo following her, "Why not?"

"And, playing _BAMM_? No problem with that?"

"Nope," she shook her head, not looking back at either of them. But she could just _sense_ their smug smirks behind her and she turned around, "OK, look, so maybe I am starting to kinda like _some_ of the humans. And if they're willing to open up a little and accept us, for real, then I'd be willing to… let them in, I guess."

She turned away again and kept walking, out the door. The three of them passed by the door that had once been marked for zombies, leading down to the basement (the signs – both "zombies" and "normals" – were long gone), and headed towards the gate into Zombie Town. The place was still rundown but there had been talk of improvements to come. Eliza didn't expect anything to happen too soon, but she decided she would keep her hopes up. Things were changing, after all.

"Greh, ag zazig?" _So, I was right?_

"Yeah, go ahead," she rolled her eyes with a laugh, "Take your bragging rights."

 _BAMM_ had changed. It's meaning had changed. When they first came up with it, it was theirs. _Just_ theirs. That day in Zed's room, it was the three of them goofing off and having fun, nothing more. But then it became _something_. It represented everything that made the young zombie generation stand out, everything that made them proud to be zombies.

Eliza couldn't help her resentment and what Zed did when he brought Addison to the zombie mash. He had kept it from her, his best friend, and turned their anthem into an invitation for a human to disturb their celebration. That's how she had seen it at the time, at least, but she forgave him now. Although there was a speck of selfishness to what he did, Zed had only been trying to welcome Addison into the community and show her what it was like on their side of the barrier. She couldn't fault him for that. Not _too_ much.

Since that night, _BAMM_ had a new meaning. Now it _was_ an invitation, to join the zombies and see who they really were.

"Y'know what?" Eliza said, looking up at Zed and Bonzo, "Let's take this a step further. Let the humans be a part of it. Show 'em how we do it in Zombieland."

She grinned as the boys high-fived and they picked up the pace. They had a block party to plan.


	14. Lessons Learned

**Disclaimer** \- I don't own ZOMBIES or any of the characters involved. Copyright to Walt Disney Studios

Another wait, sorry about that...! I was busy with the con and extremely tired after it, so when I actually had time to write I couldn't stay awake to do it. The con was fun, I bought a ton of ZOMBIES art commissions (take a look at my Tumblr to see them~!) but sadly no-one recognised my Addison or zombie cosplays

I've mentioned Mr Zeck, the janitor/zombie teacher, giving Zombie-tongue classes in fics before but I felt like I needed to take a closer look at him and how he adjusts to it. I also wanted to pair him up in a friendship with the coach cuz I love when characters who are such opposites are friends like that. I have one more one-shot planned out then I'll have to start coming up with more ideas, but I'll most likely focus more on either the Bronzo AU or the Big Project, cuz their plots are coming along nicely now. BtB updates could be few and far between, depending on how things go

* * *

Lessons Learned

A promotion. An actual, _real_ promotion. Not like when he was practically babysitting Seabrook High's new zombie students down in the basement and calling it "teaching", no, now he really _was_ teaching. And he was no longer the janitor. Although, _that_ job still had gone to another zombie. Baby steps. Progress is progress.

Mr Zeck, as luck would have it, was in fact quite well versed in not only the Zombie language but its history as well, and with the new zombie integration program in place, he could get the basic training he needed to become an actual teacher. He'd never considered the position before but he had to admit, even if he wasn't able to teach them properly, it wasn't all that bad overseeing the zombie class – if he could even call it a class at the time. And for the first time in years, he was feeling hopeful. In the past, Mr Zeck had learned to accept his role in society; a zombie, only good for menial tasks and nothing more. But now, things were looking up. So he was going for it. The school board wanted to introduce a Zombie-tongue class for the human students in order to improve the human-zombie relationships and give them a better understanding of their history and culture. This was his chance, and already being a member of the school's staff, he heard the news fast and was quick to apply.

He was going to teach Zombie-tongue to humans. And he wasn't going to be stuck in the basement anymore. But he was all too aware of the humans who still didn't approve of the integration. He was going to be Seabrook's first zombie teacher and that would inevitably come with an obscene amount of resistance. But he was part of the movement now and he wasn't about to let his cynicism get the better of him.

They weren't all bad, of course. Most of them were certainly making an effort to be more respectful than they may have been before, at the very least. Addison and Bree, in particular, were near model students but he wasn't too surprised about that – he knew about their close relationships with a few zombie students. They had already learned enough from them to know what was and wasn't true. And Bree was quickly reaching the top of the class. He knew he shouldn't play favourites, but if he did, it'd be a solid tie.

There were only a handful of students who weren't so pleased with the change, but they were hard to ignore.

"What do we even need this class for?"

"Yeah, when are _we_ ever gonna talk in Zombie?"

"Talk about a dead language…" Someone snorted at that one. Addison scoffed and Bree rolled her eyes.

Mr Zeck simply folded his arms and gave the kid an unimpressed look.

"Are you finished?"

"I'm just saying, what is the point of learning this? We don't need to speak in Zombie-tongue when you zombies can speak English."

"This class is about more than humans learning to _speak_ the language. It's a matter of understanding zombies," he managed to keep his voice level, "Not just in the sense of understanding what we _say_ , but understanding our history and our culture. Zombie-tongue comes from years of struggle and experimentation after the outbreak. It's a significant part of how we built our society. _That_ is what makes it necessary for you to learn."

Bree's hand shot up and Mr Zeck gestured for her to speak.

" _And_ there's zombies who struggle with English," she said, turning in her seat to address the other student, just barely holding back her anger, "It's only fair we learn their language. We need to be inclusive."

"Thank you, Bree" he gave her a brief smile then turned back to the source of the problem, "And if you don't take this class, I'll have no choice but to fail you. If you have a problem with that, you can take it up with Principal Lee."

"But-"

"Otherwise, I could just give you detention."

"What _for_?"

"For disrupting the class. Unless we're done here? We've wasted enough time as it is."

The student finally shut up then, looking down at the desk and muttering under their breath. Addison, hoping to diffuse the situation, raised her hand.

"Mr Zeck, is it true there's 23 different words for brains in Zombie-tongue…?"

That got more than a few people's attention, and earned a mumbled "kiss-up" from the other side of the room. Mr Zeck chuckled softly, thankful for the change in subject.

"23 might be exaggerating a little, but there are multiple words for brain. I think it's more like 14 or 15, and most of them are to differentiate between things like age, size, chemical balances, basically things that effect the taste and texture of a human brain…" he trailed off as he noticed the uneasy looks he was getting, "Of course, most of the terms are obsolete now, ever since the invention of the Z-band, since we no longer eat brains."

People visibly relaxed at that and he couldn't help feeling a twinge of sadness at how quick they were to assume the worst at just the slightest mention of the zombies' past diet. He picked up his chalk and began writing on the board.

"Actually, that gives us a perfect path back on track. The most common word for brain you'll hear nowadays would be "garzedd", which also means "head" or "mind". _Not_ a word for food. And most nouns in Zombie-tongue follow the pattern of…"

The rest of the class passed by with only a few minor hitches; the occasional comment muttered under someone's breath or a nervous look when Mr Zeck was walking around the room and perhaps got a bit too close for comfort to the desk of one of the less accepting students. When the bell rang, everyone filtered out, the kid who had started the disruption getting out as quickly as possible. Addison and Bree, however, lingered back, the last ones to leave. They turned to Mr Zeck at the door, both looking sympathetic.

"I'm sorry about all that…" Addison started to say.

"That's not for you to apologise for," he sighed, "Besides, I've been taking this sort of treatment a heck of a lot longer than your friends have. I've heard it all, far worse than that. Nothing surprises me anymore. I'm just grateful things are finally turning around."

"It doesn't make it OK, though."

"You're right about that, but it's getting better. For one thing, I'm not being forced to stay in the basement all day, until someone throws up. And there still isn't a lot of zombies in town who get to work directly with humans, so I'd say I'm pretty lucky to get this position. You two better get going, though, you'll be late for your next class. Good work today, girls."

\- BEYOND THE BARRIER -

Despite his efforts to stay hopeful, Mr Zeck's days at Seabrook High didn't get all that much easier. True, this was a vastly better job, and there were other students like Addison and Bree who would at least try to treat him with some respect, and it was great seeing the zombie students who had once been confined to the basement along with him walking around and mingling with the human students. But he couldn't avoid the ones who just wanted him gone, back downstairs or, better yet, back to Zombie Town. Not even in the teachers' lounge.

It was amazing to be allowed in there, but it didn't change the fact that he was the only zombie. He tried to be friendly and interact with the other teachers, but too many of them were unwilling to reciprocate. They at least had the decency to try and hide it, but they didn't do such a good job. He could hear their whispers when he was around.

"It can't be safe to leave him alone with a class. What was she thinking hiring him?"

"What if his Z-band malfunctioned? Especially around the students…!"

"Is he even qualified to teach?"

"He'd barely even be able to _think_ without a Z-band, what makes Principal Lee believe he has the capacity to teach? And teach _humans_?"

"Zombie or not, he was just a janitor, how did he ever become a teacher?"

He would have said something to them, most likely something sarcastic, scathing and bitter. He _would_ have, if the football team's coach hadn't overheard it all and stepped in before he could.

"He's been working in the school for years, the kids were safe enough around him when he needed to come upstairs before, they're safe with him in the classroom now."

"I think you're getting a little ahead of yourselves. Malfunctions are pretty rare, plus most of the time they only make 'em unstable. They're not all that dangerous like that. Besides, you can't blame _him_ if there's some freak accident."

"He's had the training and he speaks the language, what else do you want him to do, huh?"

"I dunno, what makes her believe _you_ have the capacity to teach? And teach _zombies_?"

"OK, now y'all are just grasping at straws. People get promoted all the time!"

Every time, the coach wouldn't just shut them down, he'd do it _loudly_. He'd make it known to the whole room that one among them was a zombiephobe with no clue whatsoever what they were talking about. That he wasn't going to tolerate it. That the rest of them shouldn't, either. Then throw an arm around Mr Zeck's shoulders, ask him if he was good, and remind him he was doing a good job. The man had certainly gotten a confidence boost ever since his team had started climbing up the rankings. He was Mr Zeck's complete opposite – expressive, excitable and, to those who deserved it, friendly. And they got along just fine.


	15. It's Alive - Part 2

**Disclaimer** \- I don't own ZOMBIES or any of the characters involved. Copyright to Walt Disney Studios. Zombie Prom is written by John Dempsey

The Bronzo AU and BG zombies one-shot collection have started so let's get back to some BtB~ Disneyfan50 on Tumblr suggested (ages ago) that I write about how opening night of Seabrook High's Zombie Prom production goes. Seriously, I highly recommend looking up the Zombie Prom cast album or watching one of the performances that are on YouTube (there's no boot of the original cast, sadly, but there's plenty of amateur shows floating around) because it's the most ridiculous thing but it works so well for ZOMBIES, and the songs are really catchy

I've been thinking about the BG zombies a lot lately, so I had to throw a quick mention of some of them in too~

* * *

It's Alive – Part 2

He wasn't nervous.

 _He wasn't nervous._

 _He was not nervous._

It was opening night of Zombie Prom and Zed was pacing back and forth backstage. He was the first in the cast to be completely ready, eager to show off his newfound acting skills to everyone, but now he was starting to feel-

 _Not nervous._

Bonzo had done his human makeup already but Zed had a feeling he might just sweat it off before the show even started with how (not) nervous he was. He didn't notice Bonzo and Eliza passing through the wings and spotting him. He was too busy pacing back and forth, telling himself not to be so-

"Nervous?"

"What? No!" he spun around to face them the second Eliza spoke, weakly waving a hand, "Pfft, are you kidding me? I've practically _lived_ this role, I just… wanna get out there, y'know?"

"Uh-huh."

She didn't look convinced. Bonzo quirked an eyebrow at Zed, glancing down at Eliza beside him then back up – he wasn't, either. Zed rolled his eyes, but soon went back to pacing. Eliza held up a hand, blocking his path.

"You don't need to worry about this, alright? You're gonna be great. You nailed it in rehearsals, and you really did live the role. Sort of. All you have to do is-"

"Please don't tell me to picture the audience naked or in their underwear or whatever."

"What? No. Your family's out there. And Alonzo. And Izabelle. I'm not wishing that on anybody."

Bonzo looked conflicted over her mention of his cousin for a moment, but shrugged it off and Eliza continued.

"I was going to say 'relax'."

Zed gave in, "That's easy for you to say, you're not onstage!"

"Hey, if you screw something up, the audience doesn't have to know, you can play it off. But if I screw up, _everyone_ knows."

"Ag, zet." _Me, too._

" _Please_ , you could play your own part _and_ find a way to cover for half the band, too, and it could beat anything on Broadway."

Bonzo opened his mouth to protest but, honestly, she was right. He looked from Eliza to Zed and back again, then promptly turned and walked away. Once he was gone, they both couldn't help laughing. Eliza shook her head and sighed.

"Seriously, you got this. OK? Break a leg," she went to follow Bonzo but paused, pointing at Zed, "Break it, but keep it on. Don't wanna freak out the humans too much."

As she walked away, Zed took a deep breath. He could do this. With a few minutes still to go, he took a peak around the audience from behind the curtain. His dad was there, a couple of rows back, with Zoey bouncing in her seat next to him. Rizzo, Zephyr and Alonzo whispering excitedly to one another. Izabelle and her friend, Zadie, with Zadie's sister, Jazz, already having to calm the two of them before they started shouting or otherwise aggravating the nearby humans. Zane was on Rizzo's other side, reading a flyer, with Paizley leaning over his shoulder to look. There was a solid group of zombies, pretty much all clustered together. A patch of green, grey and navy blue amongst the pastel tones the rest of Seabrook still favoured. Zed smiled, but it didn't last long.

What would they think of the show? Eliza had eased up a little over time, having watched it over and over again, discussing the story and giving it some consideration. But these guys weren't going to have that. Would they be offended by anything in it? What were they going to think of his human look?

"Zedka…?"

He stepped away from the curtain to see Bonzo had returned, carrying a binder of sheet music. He seemed to think for a moment, then approached Zed.

"Ru grodge?"

"I'm fine," Zed nodded, "Or, once I get out there, I will be."

Bonzo placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Elizaka zazig," _Eliza's right_ , "Zonzig zu ru zorog." _You've got nothing to worry about._

"… You think so?"

"Za," Bonzo grinned and nudged his shoulder, "Goro zombie? Geh?"

"I'm the zombie!"

They high-fived and Bonzo hurried away, but Zed wasn't left alone. As Bonzo ran out, Addison appeared in a light brown wig and a pink poodle skirt. She had one hand on the top of her head while the other tugged at the ponytail.

"You'd think I'd be used to wearing these by now, but it's been a while. Don't judge me."

"And… who are you, again?" he joked and she faked a punch to his chin. Zed raised his hands in defeat and laughed along with her before pulling her into a hug. She pressed a good-luck kiss to his cheek and smiled but then she noticed his distracted look.

"You OK?"

Zed looked down at her. Eliza and Bonzo had done what they could but seeing her finally calmed his nerves completely.

"Yeah. I'm great. You ready?"

"Yup," she took his hand, "Let's do this."

\- BEYOND THE BARRIER -

When he had first walked out onto the stage, all rosy cheeks and black hair, Zed couldn't help noticing the few zombies in the audience who held their breath for a second, or cringed just a little bit. But as the show went on, they got more into it. They even laughed at the death puns, which he took as a good sign.

Singing the opening of Blast From The Past from backstage, all the makeup and hairspray washed away, he wondered how they would react. He wondered what they might be saying to each other right now, as he built himself up.

" _Toffee, Toffee, come set me free. Toffee, Toffee, are you ready for more? Open the door, Toffee, open the door…!"_

Then came the big reveal; when he burst out of the locker as his zombie self. There was a cheer from the audience, and that included some of the humans, but the zombies were louder. Zephyr and Alonzo had jumped up from seats and Rizzo had to pull them back down. Izabelle and Zadie were aggressively shaking each other, pointing at him and beaming. Paizley threw up her arms and danced in her seat as he sang.

" _I'm a blast from the past, I'm a force for the future. A teenaged zombie, an acquired taste, oxy-clear and toxic waste! I'm a blast, blast, blast… from the all too recent past!"_

They were loving it. He could see his dad applauding (way too loud, but he had expected that) and Zoey was in total awe. His friends had been right, he had nothing to worry about.

\- BEYOND THE BARRIER -

It came time for the curtain call and when Zed stepped forward, every zombie in the audience stood, Plus a few humans, including Addison's parents, but his friends were screaming his name and it didn't look like they were going to stop anytime soon. He laughed and waved to them.

He got offstage and within a matter of seconds, Eliza was there, her arms folded and a smug "told-you-so" smile on her face.


	16. To Keep You Safe

**Disclaimer** \- I don't own ZOMBIES or any of the characters involved. Copyright to Walt Disney Studios

Sorry about the lack of Limelight over the last few days, it's taken me a while to get the next done and I still need to figure out one minor detail (which is proving really difficult) but I have a lot of BtB ideas! All of them involving Bonzo in one way or another. Here's the first of them~ Another one about the aftermath of a canon scene that I was curious about: what happened after the patrol showed up and shut down the zombie mash?

Featuring some BG zombies~!

* * *

To Keep You Safe

As soon as the lights shut off, he was gone. It was practically instinct by now. If the patrol shows up at a zombie mash, you run. So Zed ran.

He didn't stop to think.

He didn't stop for Addison.

There was a winding corridor that led deeper into the power plant to a stairwell, and that took you down into the basement. If you knew where to look, and all of the zombies there did, you would find the spots where loose bricks, dislodged panels and broken windows gave way to openings just barely big enough to climb through. They had been discovered one by one over the years of raids, even before mashes were a thing and the plant was little more than a simple hideout. It formed a makeshift escape tunnel to the outside, to the space behind the plant.

Zed turned the corner out of the light garden just as Denzel, Zach, Zane and Chaz raced past him. Rizzo, Zephyr and Alonzo were close behind. He could see Roz, Zora and Topaz further ahead. He counted each of them off in his mind. They all kept track of who was safe and who wasn't, it was an unspoken agreement. They had to look out for each other. They kept each other safe, as best they could. There were still screams coming from the main hall.

\- BEYOND THE BARRIER -

Eliza had only just walked out of the plant, hand-in-hand with Zoey, when the first jeep pulled up close by. She didn't hesitate for a second; she picked up Zoey, held a finger to her lips and ducked behind a fence. It was dark enough that they wouldn't see them if they could just keep still enough. She pulled Zoey as close to her as she possibly could get, gently stroking her hair while keeping her eyes locked on the officers who remained outside. Zoey gasped when she saw them look up at the lights pulsing behind the mostly-covered windows above and stormed into the plant, every one of them already with a hand on their tasers. Eliza carefully turned her away, resting her chin on top of Zoey's head and rocking her back and forth.

"Sshh… It's gonna be OK," she whispered as Zoey hid her face in Eliza's chest, "They'll get out. We just have to wait."

She was trying to convince herself just as much as Zoey, but Zoey was the priority. She had to keep her safe. Zed wasn't here, and Eliza was all she had right now.

\- BEYOND THE BARRIER -

" _ZPD!_ "

The dance floor was dark, only illuminated by the flashlights of the officers. Shadows of zombies ran for the corridor, too many of them being caught by the patrol, tripping, blind in the darkness, or losing their way in the panic and coming to dead ends. Screams and shouts rang out, piercing Bonzo's ears.

He was crouched behind his booth, his back against the wall, trying and failing to calm himself. His breathing was staggered, short and fast. Zed and Eliza had both disappeared a short while before the patrol showed up and he could only hope they got out in time. After a minute or two, he turned and peaked out over the top. There were only a few zombies left and Bonzo couldn't be sure how many had made it to safety and how many were being dragged away to zombie containment. A flashlight was knocked from an officer's hand by a certain aggressive little zombie, its beam briefly lighting up her face, and Bonzo let out a sigh, pressing his forehead against the corner of the booth.

"Let her _go_!"

At least it wasn't Izabelle who had been caught. No, she was just trying to wrench Riza out of the officer's grasp. Bonzo huffed. He hated doing this, but he knew he looked scary, more so than most of the other zombies. And besides, this was his cousin. He wasn't going to leave her there to get herself into even worse trouble. He took a breath and stood up from his hiding place. The officers didn't see him in the dark until he was only a couple of feet away. Once he was in the light, the one holding Riza took a step back, his grip on her slipping and allowing Izabelle to yank her away. But Izabelle, being Izabelle, didn't then run for the corridor like Bonzo had hoped she would. Instead, she pushed Riza behind her and was about to pounce when Bonzo shoved the both of them away.

"Greh zo, grog!" _Just get out, now!_

The officer shook himself from his daze quickly and grabbed Bonzo while he was distracted.

 _Now what?_

Izabelle and Riza were still there, and Izabelle was just as protective of Bonzo as he was of her. She finally got her chance to pick a fight with the patrol officer. She was clawing at the human's arm, struggling to get him off but still managing to keep him from taking Bonzo away. Riza ran to help her but another officer came up behind her.

Eventually, Izabelle worked her fingers underneath the officer's hands and pulled Bonzo free, taking her turn to push him towards the corridor before she got away herself, stamping on the officer's foot for good measure. Once they were a reasonable distance from him, she paused to spit a few Zombie curses at him but Bonzo grabbed her arm and pulled her along after him. They had to keep each other safe – they knew Riza could take care of herself from there.

\- BEYOND THE BARRIER -

It only took a few moments after Bonzo and Izabelle got outside for Riza to stumble out as well, a dark bruise forming on her wrist. Izabelle was by her side in a flash while Bonzo had located Zed. Someone was shouting above the uneasy chattering.

" _Zadie…!_ "

Jazz burst from the crowd.

"Riza! Izabelle!" she was panting hard, "Wh-where's Zadie?"

They exchanged a look, neither one wanting to be the one to say it. Izabelle gave in, her voice soft with sympathy.

"They got her."

Jazz closed her eyes and turned away, her hands raking through her hair.

"I was supposed to be watching her tonight…" she said, pacing, "She's been in enough trouble before, what am I gonna tell our parents?"

Somewhere amongst the other zombies who had made it out, Rizzo clung to Zephyr. For once, he didn't even try to push her away.

"She's gonna be kept in containment all night! Riza," Jazz clasped her hands together, "You have to cover for me. Tell them she's staying at your place tonight or something! I can go pick her up in the morning, they don't have to know…"

"OK, OK, calm down, I'll handle it." Riza wrapped an arm around Jazz's shoulder.

"I promised I'd keep her safe…"

Similar conversations were happening all around them.

\- BEYOND THE BARRIER -

The humans of the patrol were emerging from the power plant now and Eliza kept a hand on Zoey's head, not letting her see. She didn't want to scare her.

She bit her lip as she recognised her friends being forced into the back of the two jeeps – Ozzy, Zadie, Zeke, Inez… She wanted to go out there, to stop them, but she couldn't put Zoey at risk like that. As the doors of the jeeps slammed shut and the patrol began to drive away, Eliza slipped out of their hiding spot, Zoey held tightly in her arms, and she headed behind the plant where she expected the others would be waiting. With one last quick glance around the corner just to make sure, she called out to them.

"They're gone!"

"'Liza…" Zed started, then saw his sister close to tears and ran to her, "Zoey…! They didn't see you, right?"

"No," Eliza handed Zoey over and she latched onto her brother. Eliza took a moment to scan the crowd and frowned, "Where's Addison?"

Zed's face fell.

"I… I left her in there…"

"Zed!" Eliza smacked him upside the head, "I'm just starting to like this girl and you go and _abandon_ her?"

"I didn't abandon her, OK? I freaked when the patrol came in, I ran, _that's what we do_ ," he paused, "Addison… She'll be OK, won't she? She's a human! And her dad's the chief of the patrol, she'll be fine."

She had to be. Because he hadn't been there to keep her safe.


	17. Fallout

**Disclaimer** \- I don't own ZOMBIES or any of the characters involved. Copyright to Walt Disney Studios

A very short little prequel to Closed Doors, No Risk, No Reward and Tower Of Mistakes. I just felt like there was a conversation to be had here

If you didn't see it on the new Limelight, the reason for the lack of fics over the last few days was cuz my wifi data ran out on Tuesday and didn't refresh till Friday :/ But I got this, the Limelight from yesterday and most of Another Way chapter 4 written while I was waiting, plus I'm seriously hoping to get the Big Project started ASAP~! Who's excited for it?

* * *

Fallout

The door of the zombie patrol jeep was slammed closed behind him and they sat down. Zed was in a daze, thoughts coming in and out of his mind, nothing really sticking. Except for one.

"Did you see that?"

Eliza's head snapped up from where she sat on the hard bench opposite him. Bonzo barely reacted at all, still shutdown from the experience. His right hand was just tracing the outside of his Z-band. But Eliza was frowning, whether out of confusion at Zed's question or anger at what they had just been through was anyone's guess, but it was most likely both.

"See what?"

"Addison," Zed breathed, staring blankly ahead, "She took her wig off…"

Her frown morphed into a scowl. She cast a glance at Bonzo but he still wasn't responding, other than lifting his head by barely an inch. He didn't actually look at either of them, just listened. Eliza, however, spluttered, trying to find words.

"Are you kidding me right now? _That's_ what you're thinking about? Zed, look at what just happened. _Nothing_ has changed. Addison is one person, and whatever you mean about a wig, it's not enough to make a difference," she stared at him but he stayed quiet, avoiding looking her in the eye, "Zed, what did you _do_?"

Her voice shook, like she was holding back tears. Zed could do nothing but shrug, drained, all of his confidence and cockiness gone.

"I swiped right."

"Why?"

He let out a ragged sigh, "To turn myself human."

The atmosphere shifted immediately. Eliza gaped at him, feeling almost betrayed. The only sign that Bonzo had heard was a hitch in his breathing.

"Addy's parents weren't gonna let her cheer until they met me. And I couldn't do that as myself, could I?"

There was a pause. All three zombies in the jeep held their breath for a moment.

"You're an idiot, you know that?" Eliza's voice was so choked up, Zed could barely recognise it, "You risked everything, _everything_ , for one human girl? This isn't all about you!"

Zed exploded.

"Yeah, I get it! I get it now, alright? I messed up, I ruined everything. I might have just killed any chance we had of ever being fully accepted. Everything we worked for means nothing now and we can't do anything about it. Is that what you wanna hear?"

"N- I-I… No…! I don't know what I wanna hear," she folded her arms across her stomach, hunching over, "But it's not that…"

No-one spoke. Bonzo finally lifted his head, looking between the two of them. He looked like he wanted to say something. He looked hurt, lost, so unlike himself. Zed's heart sank and he started to stutter out an apology but Bonzo dropped his head again, quietly but furiously stimming with his Z-band. For Zed, watching his friends practically break right in front of him was torture. Part of him wondered if being locked in containment for however long they deemed fit could really feel any worse than the guilt that filled him in that moment.

After a while, Bonzo's strained voice broke the silence.

"Elizaka…" he didn't look up, and his expression barely changed other than frowning ever so slightly, "… garzuta…?"

Eliza's head suddenly snapped up and her hand came to her mouth as she realised.

Her computer.

"They stole my computer…"

That was why the Aceys had tried to cozy up to her like they did, and why one of them had been missing. They actually had the nerve to not only steal her most prized possession, but to use it against her and her friends.

And when Zed swiped right and corrupted the software, it would have given them a way in.

Zed must have figured it out at the same time. A look of understanding and regret came to his face and he turned to Eliza. He opened his mouth to say something but she stopped him.

"Don't. Just… don't."


	18. She's Got Everything

**Disclaimer** \- I don't own ZOMBIES or any of the characters involved. Copyright to Walt Disney Studios

I'm finally back with more BtB~ If you didn't read the latest Limelight, I've been having a hard time writing but I decided to work on multiple stories at once this past week and I ended up making some progress, I've even started the Big Project! I was hoping to have part 1 uploaded by Sunday at the latest but it might be a bit later now. But it's happening! Anyone have any guesses on what it is...? A clue - the whole point of the project is the format of it, it's a format you don't usually see done as fanfiction but I've had a lot of ideas that work really well for this kind of story

And now, onto today's one-shot! One of my fav BG zombies, Paizley, is here this time, and god do I love writing her, I especially love the voice/tone I've given her...! This one is based on a conversation I had on Tumblr with kokinu09 (krut09 here on FFN~) who also gave me an extra little idea just now for a last minute detail so thanks to her for the inspiration/ideas!

And yes, the title is a Little Mermaid reference. That's thanks to Starlight623 comparing Paizley to Ariel~

* * *

She's Got Everything

" _Alright, I got some good stuff this time!"_

Zed's 13th birthday was fast approaching and Bonzo was still in desperate need of a gift for him. But, just a few hours ago, Paizley had been walking by with her usual early morning haul from Seabrook's dump.

" _Droz grog, zama."_

" _Yeah, yeah, like every time. But_ look _…" Paizley threw open the wicker basket sitting in her wagon to reveal a mountain of new (as she called them) treasures, "At_ this _…!"_

He hadn't actually thought to ask her about Zed's birthday present, in fact he didn't even get a chance to, she was so eager to show him her latest offer.

 _She briefly dug through the contents of the basket and pulled out what looked like a metal tube, and in an almost perfect bell shape._

" _Figured it would come in handy if you're still tryin' to build that tuba, right?"_

She _had_ been right, it was exactly the part he needed.

 _Bonzo was prepared, as always, and reached into his coat pocket. He presented Paizley with a magnifying glass and her smile widened. It was old, obviously, and slightly cracked but it would probably be much more useful to her._

That would have been the end of it. It _would_ have been, had he not seen what else was hidden away in the basket.

 _The usual "thank you"s were exchanged and Paizley was about to move on but then something caught Bonzo's eye. There, peeking out from underneath an old leather book, was a football. Solid, unscathed and almost new._

And that's when he remembered Zed's birthday.

Zed didn't have an actual football; he used anything he could find of a vaguely similar shape. He did have one once, but it was practically ancient, so worn and falling apart that it didn't last long. And, surprisingly, footballs were hard to come by in Zombie Town. They only really had what came to them of Seabrook's leftover and unwanted, imperfect junk. Footballs… didn't seem all that popular. So, of course Bonzo was going to take this chance.

 _She stopped him as he tried to take it out, placing a hand on the ball, "Ah, ah, ah…!", and pointed at him._

 _Oh, Z, he knew that look – that grin, the tilt of the head, the way her fingers tapped playfully on the ball. She could tell just how desperately he wanted it and now she was in haggling mode. Bonzo always found himself getting stuck at this part. If he was going to walk away with exactly what he wanted, it wasn't going to be easy._

" _You know the rules, what else you got?"_

 _Bonzo heaved a sigh and shrugged._

"… _Zonzig." Nothing._

" _You wanna give up the bell-thing, then?"_

 _Paizley went to reach for it but Bonzo took a step back and scowled._

" _Zon!"_

" _So, you don't want the ball?"_

" _Quag! Zazig." I want it! Really._

 _For a moment, Paizley sat in thought, chewing the inside of her cheek. She looked at the football, at Bonzo, then off into space, while he grew more and more impatient, until she finally turned to him again and nodded._

"… _Alright. I'll hold onto it for you for one day," Bonzo huffed but Paizley just gave him a teasing smirk, waving a finger at him, "One day! If you don't have anything in 24 hours, it's mine. Deal?"_

" _Za."_

He never even questioned what Paizley of all people would do with a football.

\- BEYOND THE BARRIER -

Bonzo had turned his room upside down as soon as he got home, looking for something he could actually bear to part with. And that Paizley would actually want. His dad had made one measly little attempt to ask what he was doing but, evidently, he decided it wasn't worth the trouble and left Bonzo to his search.

He _needed_ that football.

He was so focused on what he was doing that he didn't hear the knock on the front door, or his dad opening it or calling his name, or even the footsteps climbing the stairs and making their way to his room.

"Hey, Bonz…" his head snapped up at the sound of Zed's voice, "Whoa… What's going on?"

Frozen, Bonzo glanced over the mess. There were so many boxes, cases, stacks of paper and books, paints, brushes, pens, fabric scraps and miscellaneous junk scattered around you could hardly see the floor.

"… Zonzig…" he shrugged.

Zed gingerly stepped around the clutter, "Is this a bad time to ask for those records back?"

Right. He'd borrowed a few olds records to get some samples. Bonzo shook his head and pursed his lips, looking once again at the mess, "Vi grag zreene." _If you can find them._

At least now he could have the cover of pretending to help Zed look. While Bonzo went back to rifling through the items at his feet, Zed started on the other side of the room, where he hadn't looked yet. It wasn't long before Zed called out to him and he looked up to see him holding a portable tape recorder. The thing was decades old and broken, in fact Bonzo had forgotten he still had it.

"Weren't you gonna get rid of this, like, two years ago?"

"Za… Gozrea zreene?" _Where'd you find it?_

"On top of the closet, right at the back. I would've thought you'd give it to Paizley or something, but whatever."

Zed put it down on the floor and went back to searching, meanwhile a light bulb flickered on in Bonzo's head. Old and broken were two of Paizley's favourite things.

\- BEYOND THE BARRIER -

"I gotta say, I never pinned you as a football guy, Bonzo."

Paizley was waiting for him the moment he walked out the house the next morning, idly tossing the ball back and forth between her hands. He frowned as he stopped in front of her.

"Agru zu Zedka, zon ag." _It's for Zed, not me._

"Alright, see, that makes much more sense," she nodded, then tilted her head, "You know, Zed's like a little brother to me. If you'd told me it was for him in the first place, I probably woulda just given it to you for nothing!"

Bonzo's eyes bulged, " _Zazig?_ "

"No," she grinned, "Gimme the thing."

Holding the football away from him in one hand, she stretched the other out to him in a grabby-hand claw. Bonzo tried to look annoyed but it was hard to be mad at Paizley. He handed over the tape recorder and she dropped the football into his waiting hands, not taking her eyes off her new treasure for a second.

\- BEYOND THE BARRIER -

The moment of truth came a few days later – Zed's birthday. Bonzo and Eliza were over at his house, his dad still in the kitchen getting his cake ready while Zoey stood on the couch next to her brother, bouncing excitedly as if it were _her_ birthday. Eliza had already given him her gift – sort of. She had hacked into his Z-band so it could run some app she'd heard the humans used for exercising. She didn't really get all that sporty stuff but hey, she knew what Zed liked. Then Bonzo handed him a box and Zed's face lit up the moment he opened it.

"No way, where'd you get this?!"

"Paizka." Bonzo shrugged and gave Eliza a quick smug smirk.

Zed tossed the ball in the air, spinning it around, and caught it again only for Zoey to try and grab it.

"Let me see!"

He laughed and dangled it above her head, letting her jump for it. He brought the ball behind his back and she reached over him for it. He took the chance to wrap his other arm around her and draped her over his shoulder. He turned back to Bonzo and Eliza while she giggled and squealed.

"Let's go break it in!"

"What, right now?"

"Right now."

Eliza let out a long sigh, "I don't even like football…"

"Shut up, it's my birthday."

She had to laugh as he stood up, the ball tucked under his arm and Zoey hanging upside down against his back. She gently punched Bonzo's arm as they followed him outside.

"OK, you win this year, but you've peaked now. Next year, I'm gonna top this."

Bonzo bit his tongue, grinning teasingly at her, and went on ahead. Eliza couldn't help muttering to herself.

" _I hacked his freaking band…!_ "


	19. Runs In The Family

**Disclaimer** \- I don't own ZOMBIES or any of the characters involved. Copyright to Walt Disney Studios

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted a BtB one-shot! Sorry about that, I've been more invested in the series and Limelight lately. But the next chapter of Another Way is coming...! I meant to have it up before episode 3 of the series fic but I hit a block. I'm getting there, tho~ Anyway, this is pretty much just a short, self-indulgent little story. I wanted to have this established in a fic since I talk about it Tumblr a lot. Some nice family bonding between Bonzo and Izabelle, set just after A Helping Hack ^^

* * *

Runs In The Family

"So, did she fix your Z-band?"

Bonzo looked up from his canvas to see Izabelle standing above him with her hands in her pockets. He shook his head, going back to his work. He was on his hands and knees, taping off sections of the canvas in curving patterns to be painted.

"Zon zrag." _No need._

It had barely been a day since he went to Eliza asking her to hack into his Z-band. He'd refused to give her computer back to her until she gave in and let him come over to continue researching. It was hours later when he finally went back home. Straight to his room; he wasn't quite ready to bring this up to his parents. He didn't even know how to yet. But Izabelle was way easier to talk to about these things.

She crouched beside him, wrapping her arms around her knees and resting her chin on them. Her eyes stayed fixated on the canvas as he spoke.

"Zon ag zer-garzand. Ag garzedd." _It's not my Z-band. It's my brain._

Izabelle frowned and tilted her head but kept her eyes on his hands, as did Bonzo.

"Garzedd?" she asked. She tended to fall into Zombie-tongue when speaking with him.

"Za. Elizaka grep zrudge," _Eliza helped me research_ , he stuck down the last piece of tape and sat back, "Garzedd bragan. Magra." _It's a mental disability. Maybe._

Now that made Izabelle turn to look at him.

"Bragan? Ru agrap grodge," _You're taking it well_ , she said and he shrugged, "Ru garzedd-zig deh Engraz?" _Do you know the English?_

Bonzo took a second or two to think, "Autism."

"Autism," Izabelle repeated, testing the word. Disabilities and mental illnesses weren't really discussed so much in Zombie Town, and there were no specific terms in Zombie for them. But they were, at least, acknowledged. Nothing else, though. Just acknowledged. Any kind of treatment or therapy they could possibly get was only available at the containment facility, and they wouldn't get much sympathy there. Izabelle was glad Bonzo had managed to avoid it.

"Greh, gozay ru garzedd-zig?" _So, how do you know?_

Now, he had a chance to talk about it. Explain it and get his thoughts straight. He listed off symptoms and traits he had read about. Senses, speech, empathy, stims, special interests... Everything that hadn't made sense before but was finally starting to. And Izabelle couldn't help thinking it over.

She sat there for what seemed like hours.

"Janook zegrere zama? Za?"

Her voice was so soft, which was practically unheard of for her, and it alarmed her cousin. His head snapped up. They were close enough that he could normally read her expression reasonably well, but the question alone was plenty.

 _Does it run in families?_

He felt strangely hopeful. Was she saying what he thought she was saying...? He cautiously tipped his head forward.

"Ru?"

Izabelle nodded, "Za. Garzedd-zig. Magra..." _I think. Maybe..._

She didn't have time to elaborate because Bonzo was already enveloping her in a hug and rocking her back and forth. She pretended to be mad for barely a second before she returned the hug. And that was rare for Izabelle.

Bonzo didn't think he could love his cousin any more than he already did but there it was.

They were in this together.


	20. Culture Shock

**Disclaimer** \- I don't own ZOMBIES or any of the characters involved. Copyright to Walt Disney Studios

It's been forever since I updated BtB, and this is a really short one-shot to come back with but hey, it's something! And I actually have a few other ideas for upcoming BtB stories! All but one of which involve Bonzo... But I'm sure you're not surprised by that. If you didn't know, I've decided Friday is Bonzo Day. So here's a Bonzo Day entry~

If you're following my other one-shot collection Limelight and you like Zephyr and Alonzo, and having your heart ripped out by angsty fics, please go and read Tattooed Mistakes! Chapter 2 should be coming this weekend! And krut09 has just released a trailer AMV for it on her YouTube, Kreatable23! She's also done trailers for Another Way and Limelight and they all turned out amazing so go check them out ^^

* * *

Culture Shock

Addison was having two birthday parties that year. One with her family and one with her friends – to save Zed and the others from the verbal (and possibly even physical) abuse her less-than-accepting relatives might threaten them with. Plus, the zombies were still steadily easing themselves into the humans' society and this could be another learning experience.

Everything was going well until Missy was about to bring the cake over. Amongst all the chatter and laughter, Zed, Eliza and Bonzo's heads all snapped up at the sound of a click and a fire lighting. A tiny fire, but unmistakably a fire. Addison and Bree hardly noticed it but the three zombies whipped round to look at Missy, who was holding a lighter.

"Whoa, whoa, _whoa,_ what is going on?" Zed pushed his chair back, despite not being anywhere near flame, with one hand held up in front of him and the other firmly around Bonzo's arm before he could run off. Bonzo was shaking, staring at the lighter and hissing softly, "What are you doing?"

Missy glanced from Zed to Addison for an explanation. Addison and Bree looked at each other in confusion for a split second then both seemed to realise their mistake at the same time. Bree reached out to rub Bonzo's other arm soothingly while Missy flicked the lighter off. She was still a little lost as to what the problem was.

"Sorry! This is just… what we do on birthdays," Addison said, getting various responses. Zed squinted and mouthed 'what?', Eliza leaned back in her seat with her eyebrows raised and Bonzo stared at her in shock, "We light the candles, make a wish then blow them out."

Zed looked over at the cake and the multiple candles sticking out of it, then slowly turned back to Addison, "Humans set their birthday cakes on _fire_?"

Addison's shoulders sagged and she rolled her eyes, "Oh, come on, we don't set the whole cake on fire. It's just candles!"

"Why?"

"To make a wish!"

"Why do you need _fire_ to make a wish?" Eliza asked and Addison stuttered.

"I don't know!" she threw up her hands, "I think it's something about blowing them all out on the first try makes it come true…? It's a tradition, OK?"

Eliza let out a short, humourless laugh, "And humans think we're the weird ones…"

"Zon ziga. Zongro." _I don't like this. This is bad._

"It's just a few candles, Bon-Bon…" Bree told him gently, "She's gonna blow 'em out right away!"

"Greh, goreez?" Bonzo frowned.

"Yeah, what _is_ the point?"

Addison dropped her head into her hands and groaned. Missy awkwardly put the lighter down and waited to see whether or not she'd still be needing it. Sitting up again, Addison placed her hands on the table in front of her, "OK. We don't have to do the candles. It's fine."

"No," Zed insisted, "Come on, if this is what humans do, and if it's really only for a couple seconds, then go ahead."

"Zrayn…" _Wait…_

"Bonzo. If the girls say it's cool, then it's cool. Don't you trust your girlfriend?"

"… Za…" he mumbled and Bree patted his arm again.

Addison didn't have the heart to tell them they were meant to sing while the candles were lit, meaning it would be a little more than just a couple of seconds. Or, more accurately, she couldn't be bothered to draw this out any longer. It just seemed unnecessary at this point. Besides, it looked like Bree was doing a good enough job keeping Bonzo calm, and Zed and Eliza were content to simply shuffle slightly further away.

At least the rest of the party had gone well.


	21. Not A Morning Person

**Disclaimer** \- I don't own ZOMBIES or any of the characters involved. Copyright to Walt Disney Studios

Well, it's Friday again and you know what that means: Bonzo Day! Just a hint of angst here, this is based on an analysis post I made on Tumblr a little while ago. I was thinking about how Bonzo was out early in the morning at the start of My Year and says he's hungry in his rap when you'd think he would have just eaten, then in the cafeteria the next day he literally only has apples, two of which he gives away (to Zed and Eliza). Made me think of the neglectful parents headcanon. So here's Bonzo's thoughts on that morning before the first day of school~

Chapter 3 of Tattooed Mistakes, the Zephzo angst AU, is coming this weekend! If you still haven't seen it, go watch the trailer made by krut09! Her YouTube is Kreatable23 and while you're there, watch her other ZOMBIES AMVs (and fic trailers she's made me~)

* * *

Not A Morning Person

It wasn't just the late nights working on various art or music projects that made Bonzo so… un-Bonzo-like in the mornings. It was what he always had to wake up to, as well.

His mother's passive-aggressive comments and his father's attempts to avoid or ignore him weren't such a pleasant way to be greeted when he came downstairs. Sometimes, he did get to experience a slightly more functional family whenever he would give up on his parents for the night and stay over at either Zed, Eliza or Izabelle's house instead. His friends' parents were always so welcoming to him and it usually made up for whatever problem had driven him from his own home in the first place. And although his uncle did share some of his mom's views, he wasn't anywhere near as convinced that Bonzo didn't know what he was talking about, or that he was too desperate for attention like she claimed he was. And his aunt was like a breath of fresh air compared to all three of them.

But when he did wake up in his own home, he preferred to leave as soon as he could. There wouldn't normally be many other zombies around that early so he'd spend that time on artwork until Zed and Eliza made an appearance, and when Zane or either of his parents came out to open the cauli-brains stand. The stand turned out to be his saving grace more often than not because in his rush to get out of the house, Bonzo tended to skip breakfast. Even if he did hang around longer than usual, neither his mom nor his dad cared much about making sure he ate. In what little time he had before they could start digging into him, he might manage to grab a couple of apples or something, but they'd be saved for lunch most of the time.

This morning wasn't much different. And yet, it was completely different. Because this was the day the zombie teens were finally allowed to leave Zombie Town and start attending Seabrook High School. When Bonzo stepped outside, not only was Zane helping his mom at the stand, but a large group of zombies were out, meeting up bright and early so they could all arrive together for their first day of school. This was a major step forward for the community, after all. Rizzo and Fritz were already at the stand and he could see Paizley not too far away with her wagon. Alonzo, Zach and Roz turned onto the street a little further down and Bonzo guessed Zephyr would be joining them any minute. For the moment, he sat down on the porch and took in the rare sight of a bustling street so early on a school day.

His current art project sat at the end of the driveway, hidden under a sheet to protect it. He still had to wait for Zed and Eliza, but he wasn't feeling up for any other social interaction just yet so he was fine with being on his own until then. He had his art case with him, something familiar to help him through the day in a new place, and the obvious choice was to get a little more work done.

Bonzo slipped his mask over his face and took out a spray can of green paint. He was about to get started when his stomach growled and he winced. Once again, he hadn't eaten yet. And he also didn't get a chance to grab something for later, but he wasn't going back inside now. He never did. He glanced over at the cauli-brains stand but Zane was busy talking to Rizzo while his mom served Fritz, and it would be Rizzo's turn after him so Bonzo would still have to wait a couple of minutes. But at least he was feeling a little bit more awake now that he was making art.

Zed's front door opened then and he stepped out with a football, which he tossed across the street to Zephyr as he hopped off his own porch and went to greet his friend. Paizley waved to Zed and passed by Bonzo to get to the cauli-brains stand, meaning he had missed his chance and now he'd have to wait a little longer to eat. Zed went to call on Eliza first before the two of them stopped to sit on the hood of a nearby car with some of the others. By the time Zed called Bonzo over to join them, the only thing on his mind was food. Although on the surface, his friends were laughing off the random-sounding choice of subject for a rap, Zed, Eliza and practically everyone else understood. "All he said was he's hungry" was an understatement. But Rizzo, as the resident mom of all the zombie teens, ran over with a stick of cauliflower for him, a welcome relief. She had most likely pilfered it from Zane and the only reason he didn't hound her, or even Bonzo himself, for money every time – she did this a lot – was because he also knew what was going on in Bonzo's family. He could spare a stick for free every now and then if Bonzo needed it.

Once he was out of that house every morning, Bonzo always felt a lot better.


	22. Cadenza - Part 1

**Disclaimer** \- I don't own ZOMBIES or any of the characters involved. Copyright to Walt Disney Studios

I really wanted to get this done for Bonzo Day yesterday but oh well. Yet another one based on something I talked about on Tumblr ages ago, although this is something I keep talking about on Tumblr. I like the idea of Bonzo getting the cat. He calls her Cadenza. She's his daughter and he loves her. Ironically, my brother just got a new cat today. So it seems like a good time to post it

* * *

Cadenza – Part 1

"Bonzo?"

"Gozig?"

"Bonzo, put it down."

"Zon."

"Bonzo."

" _Quag._ "

"Bonzo, it's not your cat."

" _Mew!_ "

"Gar-garziga, gralzig..."

Zed let out a long sigh and turned to the coach, "Sorry about this."

The coach laughed and shrugged, "Hey, I don't blame him. It's hard to resist something that cute."

He had recently reached a few of his goals from the start of the school year, including moving out of his parents' basement and getting a cat. Zed had wanted to swing by and take a look at the coach's new place, seeing as he _had_ been at least partially responsible for him making this much progress, and Bonzo offered to tag along with him. What Zed hadn't been planning on, however, was for the coach to see them walking past and invite them in only for Bonzo to fall head over heels in love with the kitten and refuse to let go of it.

"Y'know," the coach started, turning to Bonzo, "I think there's a couple other kittens in the litter that still need homes, if you really want one of your own. They did lift the pet ban on zombies, after all."

Bonzo's eyes lit up, his eyes being the only visible part of his face while the rest was buried in the kitten's fur. He nodded excitedly and the coach continued.

"'Course, you'll have to check with your parents first but actually getting a cat shouldn't be much of a problem. They're just a regular family looking for homes, no adoption fees or waiting period or anything."

Zed looked away as Bonzo grinned and finally handed the kitten back over to its rightful owner. He waited until they'd said goodbye and were out of the house to bring up his concern.

"You really want a cat, Bonz...?

"Za."

"And you think your parents would let you?" Zed asked with a slight cringe. He didn't want to ruin his friend's fun, but he knew what his mom and dad were like. Uncaring, ignorant and judgemental. And definitely not the types to want a live animal roaming around the house, especially if it belonged to their son. Bonzo was quiet for a few seconds, then shrugged and smiled.

"Zon zrag garzedd-zig." _They don't need to know._

"Of course they'll know, it's a _cat_! You can't hide a whole animal from them."

Bonzo gave him a very serious, very determined look.

"Zreene garzay." _I'll find a way._

\- BEYOND THE BARRIER -

And he did.

Actually getting the cat wasn't all that hard, he just had to convince the owners of its mother, who were friends of the football coach, that he was in fact allowed to get a pet. And that was easy enough since the coach, who saw no reason not to trust Bonzo, had assured them he was. So soon, Bonzo had his little Cadenza.

She was a tiny puffball of jet black fur, with white markings on her face and chest like splatters of paint. When Bonzo picked her up and held her to his face, she gave a tiny squeak and stretched out a paw until it touched his nose. He couldn't believe something could be so cute – even cuter than Zoey, or Bree. And she was _his_.

Now came the tricky part: keeping her hidden. Luckily, his bedroom was a permanent mess and even if his parents did come in at any point, they didn't usually pay much attention to what was there. But some things might stand out. He kept food and water under the bed, a litterbox behind a shelf of CDs and records under his desk, and any toys could easily be passed off as art supplies. But he couldn't take his eyes off Cadenza for a minute just in case. And the easiest way to do that would be to take her with him everywhere he went.


	23. Cadenza - Part 2

**Disclaimer** \- I don't own ZOMBIES or any of the characters involved. Copyright to Walt Disney Studios

Happy Bonzo Day everyone~! Cadenza is back and now she gets to meet Mama Bree! And Zed is dying laughing. Zed is me. I am Zed. We are one

* * *

Cadenza – Part 2

" _Mew!_ "

"... What was that?" Eliza asked, throwing Bonzo a suspicious look. He shrugged, avoiding her gaze.

"Zonzig."

"That was not nothing," she stated and folded her arms, "That was a cat."

"Zon."

"Yeah, it was."

Bonzo shook his head indignantly. Behind Eliza, Zed was sitting with his hand over his mouth struggling not to laugh.

"You brought your cat to school?"

"Zon!"

"Then what was that sound?" she quirked an eyebrow, "Your tuba?"

Bonzo slowly glanced at the instrument he was holding then back up, "... Za?"

"Prove it. Play it. Just like that sound."

Zed bit his lip and turned away as Bonzo stared at Eliza nervously, "... Zon..."

"Why not?"

" _Mew!_ " The sound was definitely coming from inside the tuba, but Bonzo wasn't playing it. He pretended not to hear.

"... Zon quag." _I don't want to._

And at that exact moment, a small, fluffy, black-and-white face peeked out from inside the bell of the tuba, " _Mew?_ "

Zed couldn't hide his laughter any longer and slipped right off the chair onto the floor. Neither Eliza nor Bonzo paid him any attention as he gasped for breath.

"You brought. Your cat. To school."

"... Zon."

"I can see her."

Bonzo gently pushed Cadenza back inside, "Gra'zon." _No, you can't._

Eliza pressed her hands to her temples and muttered under her breath, "Good Z, why are you like this?"

Cadenza seemed to have settled down a bit now and stayed put, as long as Bonzo kept scratching behind her ear every couple of minutes or so. Zed was still giggling a bit at the sight of his friend reaching into his tuba, and the slightly amplified sound of purring from within.

"Why is she here?" Eliza asked.

"Jaka zon garzedd-zig agru." _My parents don't know about her._

Eliza nodded, "OK, that's fair. But why get a cat in the first place if you have to hide her from them?"

Bonzo didn't even look at her, he was too busy petting Cadenza, "Quag." _I wanted one._

"Are you sure about this, Bonz?"

"Garziga'gru." _I love her._ Bonzo smiled down at the kitten as her paws slid on the inner surface.

Before Eliza could say anything else, the three zombies heard Addison's voice calling out to them. They turned to see her making her way down the hall towards them along with Bree.

Bonzo leaned down to whisper to Cadenza, "Ru maska!" _It's your mommy!_

"Please don't..." Eliza groaned.

"Breeska, zo!" _Bree, come here!_ Bonzo was already beckoning Bree over, "Quag ru aza grozig." _I want to show you something._

Bree, enthusiastic as ever, gasped and practically ran over to him.

"What is it?"

"Agz garzabe!" _Our baby!_

"Our what now?" Bree's eyebrows shot up and she leaned back.

Addison frowned and looked to Zed, who just waved a hand, still laughing slightly.

"Just wait for it, trust me...!"

The girls looked at each other in confusion until Bonzo, beaming, reached inside the tuba and lifted Cadenza out of her hiding spot. Bree's hands flew to her mouth, then to her heart as her lips formed a soft 'O'. She took a step closer and held out her hands.

"Oh...!"

"Congrats, Bubbles," Eliza quipped in a monotone, "You now have an extremely hairy daughter. Apparently."

"I love her...!" Bree whispered as she took the kitten from her boyfriend and held her only an inch or two from her own face. Bonzo watched as she kissed Cadenza's nose and began baby-talking to her, until Cadenza raised one tiny paw and placed it on Bree's glasses. Bree and Bonzo both froze.

"Uh, are you guys OK?" Addison asked.

"She's so cute..." Bree whispered.

"Zazig zreek..." _So cute..._ Bonzo agreed.

"They're fine," Eliza said with a roll of her eyes.

Bree ignored her, "What's her name?"

Bonzo carefully took her back and let her clamber onto his shoulder, "Cadenza."

"Yeah, Caden _za_ ," Eliza stressed, "For the love of Z, do not let him call her 'Cadenzka'! I could stand him using '-ka' for Zander 'cause he's just a stuffed animal, but then he started doing it with Puppy. I am _not_ putting up with him using '-ka' for his cat, they're animals, not zombies!"

Bonzo, one hand petting Cadenza as she nuzzled against his neck, suddenly shot Eliza a sly smile.

"Don't you dare."

" _Cadenzka._ "

"That's it. I'm done. I'm leaving. Goodbye."

Eliza stood, picked up her bag and headed off down the hall while Bonzo and Zed shared a smug look then both burst out laughing, Bree and Addison quickly joining them.


	24. Why Eliza Hates Humans

**Disclaimer** \- I don't own ZOMBIES or any of the characters involved. Copyright to Walt Disney Studios

Wow. It's been forever since I updated BtB... This idea has been floating around in my head for months and I've been writing it for maybe a couple of weeks? Idk, but I've been giving more attention to my BG zombies stuff so the canon zombies have been neglected. In fact, this one doesn't actually involve much of canon characters, but it's a backstory for Eliza's family so it's going in BtB

But if you are reading Limelight and all the BGZ stuff as well, that's making a big comeback atm, and Tattooed Mistakes' sequel will be coming... at... some point... I've written like 8k words and it's getting a bit out of control. Anyway, here's some Scythes family angst~ (Have I used the surname "Scythes" here yet? In case I haven't, I borrowed it from krut09~)

* * *

Why Eliza Hates Humans

Everyone knew that Eliza Scythes hated humans with a passion. Or at least she did before the integration, when she met Addison and Bree and the few other humans willing to accept and help the zombies. It didn't change everything, of course. The humans had done far too much damage for her to fully forgive them, and there were so many who weren't going to give up the old ways without a fight. It was a good thing Eliza was up for a fight. But there was another, more personal reason why Eliza held so much bitterness towards the humans of Seabrook.

Her parents and sister never talked about it when she was a child, so she hadn't ever thought to ask, but while she knew about her father's parents, she had only ever heard about her mother's mother. If her grandfather had died somehow since the outbreak, she would've heard about it. Zinnia and Zigmund were very open to their daughters about serious things; they wanted to make sure they understood the ways of the world and how it would treat them.

Azalea and Eliza knew the story of Z, they knew that Zinnia had been born only a year or so before the outbreak, meaning she was once human herself, and Zigmund was among the first born zombies only a couple of years later, they knew that Zigmund's father had been one of the first zombies to die during a Z-band maintenance check, and they knew of all the protests and riots that had broken out since the day Z was killed. But Zinnia never said a word about _her_ father. Not until she and her big sister worked up the collective nerve to ask.

Yes, Eliza already hated humans, but this story made her despise them with every fiber of her being.

When the accident at the Seabrook Energy Plant occurred all those years ago, Zinnia's mother was unfortunately on the west side of town, and with her baby daughter, at that, while her husband was at work on the east side. Unaware of the coming danger, she went about her business like she did every day, until the sound of screaming alerted her. She turned around only to see a crowd of people running from a thick mass of green fog. For a moment, she couldn't do anything, she was so shocked. There was no telling what the fog was or where it came from, but she could see dark shapes within it that could only be the bodies of those who had already fallen victim to its poison.

It was impossible to escape, especially weighed down as she was with Zinnia in her arms, and eventually she collapsed as the toxic gas filled her lungs. There was no saving Zinnia, either, and both of them were engulfed.

For so long after it happened, all she knew was an overwhelming hunger and a fierce need to protect her child. By the time she and Zinnia were both issued the standard shock collars, weeks had passed, probably _months_. With her own and her daughter's human names forgotten, she joined the others in starting the tradition of Z names. She couldn't remember her husband's name, either, and the zombie patrol were of no help to her; even if they had wanted to, they couldn't – they didn't understand what she was saying to them.

He wasn't in Zombie Town. He wasn't a zombie. He hadn't been anywhere near the plant at the time of the accident. He was _outside_ of the barrier, so she had no chance of ever seeing him again. Or so she thought, until the zombies were finally deemed safe to work for the humans. In only the smallest, most menial positions, of course, but in all the loss and suffering she had endured in the years since the outbreak, she wanted to believe there could be something good. She could at least try to look on the bright side.

The day she actually saw him changed her mind, though.

She worked as a cleaner – of course she did, there wasn't much else a zombie could do in Seabrook – and one day when she was taking out the trash, she thought she spotted him. Seeing the nearest zombie patrol guard was turned away, she took the chance to slip round the corner and get a better look.

And he stopped.

They both stood staring at each other in shock, but when she took a step towards him, he took a step back, his jaw set.

"You're dead."

It wasn't "You're dead" in the "I thought I'd never see you again!" way. It was a cold, unfeeling statement.

"But I'm-"

"You might as well be dead."

Her face fell, "What?"

"You're a zombie," he said plainly, "No longer a person."

She frowned, "We aren't _dead_. We're not those kinds of zombies."

He wasn't listening, though, "As far as Seabrook's laws are concerned, you are dead. Which means our marriage is over, and I've moved on."

She was struck speechless. How could he let her go so easily? And what about their daughter? Zinnia was a teenager now, and her father had missed seeing her grow up.

It got worse in a matter of seconds. He turned and walked away without another word, directly towards a human woman who smiled warmly at him. Her last scrap of hope disintegrated when they kissed and she saw a ring on the hand that held his arm. Something in her unbeating heart hardened as she watched them disappear around a corner. Her lips pressed into a fine line, she pulled the ring off her own finger, threw it unceremoniously to the ground, and went back to work.

The Scythes sisters were well aware of the fact that somewhere in Seabrook, their mother had a step-mother. She could even have half-siblings. Or other relatives. But they didn't want to know.

Eliza didn't have human friends.

And, as far as she saw it, she _did not_ have human family.


End file.
